7th Year Project

Shmitta Year in Judaism is the 7 th year in a 7 years cycle. It comes from agriculture originally, Where farmers are supposed to stop working on their land. but has 2 very important meanings. The first is to teach people about control, and admiring nature power over human abilities. It is about letting go of property and human control over it. The second, is about social rehabilitation. since farmers and land owners will stop working on their land, and also the poor could eat from any agriculture growth available, the economical gap should get smaller. For me this tradition is fascinating, since as a designer, I have a very good sense of control over my creations. I want to try and let go of this control, to try and see what is the lesson to be learnt. to see how this grasp of truth changes. The heritage that influence me and my personality has strong connection to property. Israel today as well as Europe in the 30s and 40s, and the reason I am not European as my grandparents were. The reason I have nightmares, and the reason for my discomfort with Israeli situation today, has strong connection to property, to control. As I believe in practice better then preaching, I’ll practice Shmitta as I see it, for a full year, in the new context - Design practice.

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two parts glued with strong stable glaze.

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3 objects, one mold

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layered cup, is stable, because of thick bottom layer of clay. the red one.

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stable small plate. bottom reshaped by using air pressure gun while extracting the mold

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both vases opened up in the burning process....

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...dried vases before the burning process are very very fragile. the cuts will hopefully allow the thin parts to open up a bit in the burning process.

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...move move move. in order to move the dry, and very fragile stuff I used a lot of improvised packaging material. to empty space between them so they don't move. and inside the very thin vase neck, I used packaging material as well, so it doesn't damage from its own weight.

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...in order to keep the thin parts together while drying I used a sponge... well, it is still very fragile before the burn... this one broke even without touching or moving it. maybe because of the shrinking....

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...I cat these 2 vases in different depth . to see which one gets a better result of opening after the burning process.

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...the dry porcelain is very fragile. so I use the mold to hold it while drying and before the first burn. all the finishes have to be done before it drys, then it is most fragile...

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...I will try to glue these 2 parts with glaze..

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...the colour try with porcelain is out of the oven. it see;ms like the colours are correct as I wanted them. for 100% colour I used100 grams of pigment on 1 litter of porcelain. and for the lighter one 30 grams

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...here is new clay I got. it is made form Israeli soil. to celebrate the tradition of shmitta.

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...the first castings in a new mold are shiiiiii. only the 3rd or 4th succeeded.

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...oh oh. the porcelain with the colour shrink much more then the one without. also the colours seem to be much stronger after the burning process.

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...I found a nice way to dry the mold after casting a lot..... I put it in the toaster oven for 2 minutes and then moves it under the air vacuum. the fluids are released from the heat, and then evaporates...