Ceramics

My working with ceramics started with a car tyre and the engine from a washing machine. That is, it started with the potter's wheel that my father built when I was little. My sister, brother and I had a lot of fun turning clumsy bowls, some of which were even burnt at a local ceramics workshop.

Some years ago I decided to take up this interest again, and now I work with ceramics as often as I can between work and doing 3D graphics. I am fascinated by the fact that soft clay, practically taken directly from the ground, can be turned into hard, durable goods and I like to make the properties of the soft clay visible in the finished objects. I also like the unpredictability of glazes, the fact that you can never really know what a glaze will look like on this particular object, having this thickness on this clay and combined with these other glazes.

3D graphics

The old potter's wheel.

3D graphics is a kind of computer graphics where you can simulate three dimensions instead of working only in two. This way it is possible to create images of three-dimensional objects that are incredibly correct in terms of form, colour, shininess, perspective etc., but you can also create objects that would never be seen in real life. And you can animate the finished objects in a very free and dynamic way.

The program I use is Cinema 4D. Briefly, this kind of programs works a bit like technical drawing. As seen in the screenshot below, three windows show the object you are building from different angles, as when you draw an object on graph paper, and a fourth window shows the object in perspective. There are many ways of building objects like this. You could for example start with a simple cube and move points on its surface to deform it, or you could draw several splines and connect them to each other.

I have mainly made still images so far, trying to create different moods and atmospheres, but I plan to learn more about animation as well. I have had the opportunity to produce illustrations for two books and some CD-covers, and examples of these can be seen in the gallery together with other images and an animation.

Updated 2008-08-03