Minecrafting
What it is
Minecrafting is a large parian ware vessel measuring 31cm high x 28cm diameter inspired by the magnificent 17th Century Chinese vases that can be seen in the Ceramic Galleries at the Victoria & Albert Museum. It has a low relief design made up of a triptych of images featuring four boys, three clustered around two laptops on a family sofa playing the popular computer video game Minecraft on a pair of laptops while the fourth boy climbs the walls.
How it was made
The vase was created using a combination of hand and digital drawing and computer numerically controlled machining to female mould. Silicone rubber was cast into the milled line to create a flexible low relief skin that was wrapped around a cylindrical vessel form and used to make a huge plaster mould that could be filled with liquid clay, allowed to set to create a wall and then turned out of the mould before drying and firing.
Blueprint for Minecrafting
Exhibitions
The MInecrafting vase has been exhibited nationally and internationally and featured in articles and academic papers.
- 2013, Collect, Saatchi Gallery, London with The Wills Lane Gallery
- 2015, Siggraph, Hybrid Craft, international show curated by Amit Zoran
- 2017/18, Reinvented, international touring show curated by Adam Chau:
– Clay Art Centre, Port Chester, NY
– Clay Studio, Philadelphia
Articles
- 2018, Adam Chau, Digital by Design, Ceramics Monthly, Jan
- 2016, Iwao Haraguchi, Hybrid Craft, Diva online journal, Vol.40, Summer issue
- 2015, Amit Zoran, Hybrid Craft: Showcase of Physical and Digital Integration of Design and Craft Skill, Leonardo Special Issue, Vol. 48, No. 4.
