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Caramics by Vasilisa

San Diego, California

Phone: +1 858 354-5787
E-mail: ceramicsbyvasilisa@gmail.com

Vasilisa is a fairytale character who had the ability to magically create real and crafted objects. People were always surprised by her creations.

I was born in Kiev. In the early 1990s, I immigrated with my family to the United States. We settled in California. It took some time until I got used to my "new home" and my niche in the new life began to shape.

It so happened that my fate gave me an opportunity to do pottery. I always was interested in ceramics, perhaps, the most common form of craft arts. Ceramic objects easily become a part of everyday life: dishes, ritual objects, and decorations in the form of statuettes, decorative plates, and keepsake boxes.

The first course in ceramics which I took at the community college was taught by Professor Pamela Kozminska, a ceramist and conceptual artist. She introduced me to the world of metamorphosis, through which the clay passes, before turning into a ceramic object of a certain shape and surface finish.

After I became a student in the workshop of a recognized artist Eric Woods, a metamorphosis happened to me. It is a blessing to work on your ideas in his workshop. His skills, his artistic taste, vast knowledge and understanding of art, his philosophical prospective create an extraordinary atmosphere in his studio. I am very grateful to him for that.

A spectator who looks at a ceramic piece is primarily interested in the answer to a question what inspired the ceramist to create the object. However, when a ceramist talks about his works, first of all he want to tell about techniques he used, at what temperature and in which kiln he fired the piece, and what glazes he used to finish the surface of the piece.

My work can be divided into several groups. One group is a group of objects with lids: boxes, kegs, and vessels. When people look at these objects they always try to open the lids in order to check if the lid indeed can be opened and check inside the piece looking for a surprise.

Teapots and coffee pots belong to another category of my pieces. A teapot can be of any shape. The presence of necessary functional elements in teapots gives room for creativity and gives teapots a character. Looking at a teapot, you can see its individual character and ... if you want, to open the lid.

The theme of cityscapes, houses and architectural forms is also very interesting to me. Perhaps, this comes from childhood desire to “build a house" in which you can live happily and always have fun. Friedensreich Hundertwasser, an Austrian artist and architectural designer, called residential buildings a person’s “third skin. He considered the “first skin” our a human beings skin, the “second skin” our clothes, and the “third skin” our homes, which must exist in harmony with Earth on which they are built and create spaces in homes for plants to compensate for the space on the ground which the house took from Earth.

I also make ritual objects and objects for Jewish holidays hoping that they will be used to maintain Jewish tradition and to remind to myself that we are in G-d's hands, "like clay in the hands of a potter" ...

My ceramic pieces are made from stoneware clay, which contains particles of kaolin, mica and sand. This clay can be used to make pieces by throwing on a potter's wheel and by hand-building. Most of my pieces are made using a hand-building method from slabs of rolled clay. After the shape of the product is formed, the pieces are fired for the first time in a kiln at a temperature of under 1000 ° C. After the first firing, when the product has become sufficiently hard and most of the moisture has evaporated from it, the finishing work begins which includes the application of pigments or glazes. Depending on the process chosen, the pieces are fired one, two, or more times. I use materials that are fired in the range between 1000 ° C and 1200 ° C. I use custom made glazes and commercial glazes. The process of making a ceramic piece takes time.  The time is needed for natural processes which take clay from one physical stage to another, such as air drying of freshly made pieces and slow cooling after firing (clay naturally cracks if cooled rapidly).  Kilns (electric or natural gas) are designed for firing multiple pieces Therefore, it is necessary to wait until there are enough items to do firing. The day when the kiln is opened with the finished and already cooled pieces after the last firing pieces is a long-awaited day for the ceramist, since the work on the product usually takes several week.

I am a member of Clay Artists of San Diego. My work was exhibited at art shows in California and Kiev at the Sholom Aleichem Museum. Several of my pieces are in private collections in France.