Nerikomi egg pattern

In this last unit of my MA, I want to focus more on technique and material process of pottery, and taking a more design focused approach. I still want my final objects to relate to human relationships with animals and be socially progressive in that way, and because most people eat animals I think there’s a strong connection between how we make and use pottery and how we use animals. Before beginning paper maquettes for a ceramic egg holder, I’ll be doing tests with clay suitable for nerikomi. My goal is to make a 2d nerikomi pattern that resembles the lifecycle within a chicken / duck egg.

I mixed about 10% by weight of stain into the clays, yellow, blue, and pink. I picked the colors before I knew what I was going to make, but I figured they could be mixed since they are sort of primary colors.

I extruded some pink clay in a string shape, made a think slab from yellow clay, and wrapped it around the string. The pink is meant to resemble the beginning fleshy stage of life within an egg, and the yellow the yolk. I wrapped all that again into a white slab to represent the shell.

I cut the tube into pieces and arrange them onto a slab.

After rolling the pattern into the slab, it's a bit difficult to notice a pattern or difference in color, but hopefully it will be clearer once fired. I had difficulty getting the design to not pop out the slab - some nerikomi designers will keep the colored clay in plastic bags for weeks so the clay sort of melts together over time, but in lieu of time I think the gray slab clay was too dry compared to the colored clay and therefore didn't mix well and caused separation. I'll just need to use more water in the future when combining patterns.