Vessels in conversation
- Avital makes large-scale ceramic vessels
- She has developed a method to print onto clay surfaces
- Her works feature elaborate ornamentation and sometimes even texts
Avital Sheffer came to pottery following an earlier career in fashion and the arts. She describes her discovery of the craft as “a lightning strike,” after visiting the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Shrine of the Book, in Jerusalem. Although not describing herself as a religious person, the containers of the Dead Sea Scrolls inspired her love of clay. A few weeks later, she had enrolled in a ceramics course. In the second lesson of art school, Avital started hand building large-scale ceramic vessels, a style that is still hers today. Her work uses coils, slabs, carvings, appendages and print work. Avital has developed a method of silk screen printing which allows her to apply print to rounded surfaces, a technique which she uses substantially.
Interview
- How do you link tradition and innovation?
- I am very much influenced by traditional crafts and ceramics in particular but I do not copy traditional objects, they just inspire me. Sometimes a certain curve or a certain line or a certain volume attracts me and I make my own interpretation on a larger scale.
- Why were you attracted to hand building?
- I like the cadence of it, the rhythm of it, the slowness of it. I was entirely committed to hand building from the start, that is what captivated me. Vessels can hold knowledge, tell stories and tap into something very deep in us – both human and universal.
- What techniques have you developed?
- I have developed a series of surface treatments, which are details raised in clay or carved in clay onto the vessel. After very slow drying I use engobes and glazes. When I am happy with the result of the glazes – which sometimes involves another two firings – then I apply print work.
- How does print manifest in your practice?
- I do a lot of research on ancient documents, Middle Eastern, Jewish, Hebrew and related semitic languages. I develop images from those documents that are transferred onto silk screens. I then print onto transfers, which allows me to dress the curved surfaces of my vessels.
Avital Sheffer is an expert artisan: she began her career in 1995
Where
Avital Sheffer
