The journey of Cube of Love starts from a clay cube and continues to finally be a part of a celebration that brings people of different cultures together.
My professor, Frank Bosco, challenged me to choose an Iranian pattern for my slip casting class assignment.
Iranian patterns feature an almost infinite array of geometric patterns. Traditionally, the hand carving technique is used to shape the clay form, however, because of the detailed nature of the design and time constraints, I used the laser cut technology.
I casted the initial cube using a combination of plaster and clay. Then I laser cut the pattern that I had traced from a tile picture in Illustrator into the cub. Soaping the cube and creating the mold was the next step. I needed to make a six part mold and of course a window for the slip to enter and exit.
The casted cubes were dried and bisque fired before glazing. After glazing, they were reduction-fired. Oxidation firing would resulted in a more consistent but less shiny glaze. The cubes shrinked in size.
Cube of Love were exhibited at Brown university at an Iranian/Persian cultural celebration (Yalda Night). The symbolic food of the celebration were placed inside the Cubes.
