Hi, I’m Lily Yao and I make functional ceramic art under the name BareSoul Ceramics. Why do I make functional art? Because I disagree with the idea that art is only made to be looked at, that your only interaction with a piece is to stare and admire. I believe that art should touched and interactive; it should be a part of your daily life. When you drink from my mug, or bowl, or when you water your plant, I want my art to remind you of the beauty around you, to inspire you to be creative and bring more beauty into your life.
What inspires me? I take inspiration from the beauty of nature around us. I love how perfectly imperfect nature can be. Take this leaf for example.
This is the kind of leaf I use for my ceramics. You can see that this leaf is not symmetrical and it’s not that same as the other leaves around it. It is still a pretty leaf. Just like humans, we are all individuals, unique and different in our own way and we are all beautiful, perfectly imperfect. I try to capture that beauty and uniqueness in my art.
Each piece I make are individually made, you’ll never get one that’s exactly the same as the other. I start by getting on a ceramic wheel and forming the vessel of mug (throwing). After the vessel dries and hardens a bit, I turn the mug upside down and curve out a bottom, a foot (trimming). The tree handle is added then textured, followed by the either leaf impressions where I press fresh leaves into the clay and brush on slip, which is liquid clay, on the edges to create a deeper impression or I use a silicone mold of leaves and flowers for further decoration. I allow the mug to dry completely and it goes into its first firing, called a bisque fire. Once that firing is done, I start the glazing process. The tree, leaves and flowers are glazed separately from the rest of the mug and it’s the first place I start. Once they are glazed, I wax them. Wax helps to repel glaze from any area you don’t want glazed. The mug is then dipped into various glazes and I carefully clean off any glaze left on the tree, leaves and flowers. Once the glaze dries, the mug goes into its last firing called the glaze fire and I have the final product. This is how my tree mugs are made, deeply inspired by nature, and perfectly imperfect.