My last sculptural series involved the concept of making ceramic bottles in the form of human torsos. They were made by ‘coiling’ 6″ wide belts of clay, working from a flat bottom up to a narrow neck. Being ‘bottles’ they had no heads nor arms, but weren’t static, formal bottle forms, either.

To give them visual and dynamic interest, as I was building them I incorporated on their surfaces geometric shapes – triangles, rectangles, ovals, etc. – , which gave the figures a sense of gesture, often a feeling of struggle. They were coloured with stains, to give them a dry, smooth, skin-like feel.