Pattern Ideation

 Pattern Ideation

Trying to stick to plant-based patterns, largely looking at plants that have shape to them with relatively fleshy and dry surfaces, I've gotten a feel for different sort of rhythmic shapes that could reflect this feel when tessellated across the surface of my design. 

While it's tempting to go with a carving technique for the slip and to draw direct inspiration from the needles themselves, I'd like to go with the paper approach where you apply slip over a sheet of paper which is then removed.  The tricky part with trying to come up with a good pattern is getting something that looks engaging and unique, while also landing with something that is achievable.  You may notice that the blueprint has been simplified from last week, due to the reality of how difficult the clay is to work with when met with my initial expectations.  I'm leaning towards shapes that mix curves and hard points, like the 4th in each row here.  They reflect a very arid sort of atmosphere and are reminiscent of the kind of warbling shapes you see in cacti as shown above, but abstracted and applied to a more strict repetition.