Ceramic nooses and leaves

To take my project forwards I decided to work with clay to create some ceramic pieces. I wanted to take different aspects of the original still life painting by Matthias Withoos to create a ceramic installation piece in response. 'still life with frog and goldfinch' is a type of painting called a 'vanitas', which means that throughout the piece there are representations and symbols of life and death. I wanted to take this aspect of life and death to create the main section of my piece, and to do this I took the image of the noose within the painting and created clay versions. 

My first two clay nooses were small and experimental, and they were created using Crank which I would not be using for the final piece as I want a smooth and sleek texture as opposed to a rough surface. I poked holes into the main structure so that I would have something to hang other pieces on. However, Bothe of these first attempts were unsuccessful, the smaller piece was smashed when being removed from the kiln and the larger piece warped and fell apart in the kiln. 

I then decided to create the final noose using white earthen ware to create a nice white and sleek surface , I chose to do this because I wanted the noose to be reminiscent of a bone to tie into the theme of life and death and I think that this has worked well. Not only is the noose shape morbid and creates an unsettling feeling, I believe that the chalky bone white colour adds and almost ghostly effect to the piece.

I also cut out different leaf shapes as well as circles and ovals out of white earthen ware clay to hang from the noose so that I can created a structure similar to a baby mobile to represent the life aspect of the work.