WORDS Malibongwe Tyilo
A ceramicist, an animator and a filmmaker collaborated to make this pot that when spun around, the decorations come to life in a short animation!
Multi-disciplinary, interdisciplinary, collaborative… these are among the most popular buzzwords in today’s creative-speak. While not every multi-inter-disciplinary-collab will be a roaring success, this clay ceramic project captures the spirit behind these words perfectly.
The project brought together three people from different disciplines – Bafta and British Animation award-winning animator Jim Le Fevre, Al Johnstone of RAMP Ceramics and documentary filmmaker Mike Paterson – to create this animation for the UK’s Crafts Council.
The aim of the project was to show how to merge pottery with experimental animation, by turning the ordinary potter’s wheel into a zoetrope. A zoetrope is a device that creates the illusion of motion by spinning a series of static pictures. Through a carefully painted scene, the final video presents a clay zoetrope of birds flying up above trees, merging pottery, painting, animation and filmmaking… just beautifully.
