Harry Cassell

Experimenting with carving into press molded forms. The pressed coils create different shapes each time so I walk around the RISD Nature lab to see what creatures fit in the space.

The First Flame series tells the story of a flame unwinding from the core of the Earth and traveling up towards the Earth’s surface. Emerging under the protection of a cave, the flame is protected from the great floods above and grows into a large fire.

Each piece tells this same story while showing the evolution of iconography from iteration to iteration. The First Flame is a study of the design process and how small decisions inspire growth. If I introduce a new shape, how does the landscape mold around it? If I shift the physics of this mythological world, how do water and fire react? 

Red stoneware, ^10 electric

10" x 6.5"x 2"

A glaze painting of my friends’ garden. It attempts to capture this scene at a specific point in time, the young tree in early May, the care in the rocks placed around it. Small flowers picked from the garden can be placed in the bud vase to celebrate growth and remind the stoneware that the garden is alive.

I am inspired by narratives at the core of this medium: the geological cycles from which the ingredients in clay and glazes are formed. I am abstracting complex processes involving heat, water, and pressure into a language of color and symbols. I can then reassemble this library of geological motifs into fantastical landscapes which blur the line between educational and mythological.

These glaze painting are centered on the water cycle : exploring how water rises and falls and the life it leaves in its wake.

Mild steel, plywood, house paint, plaster

24” x 15” x 34”

2022-2023

This wedging table was designed for a small ceramic studio. It can hold 3 plaster slabs for three different clay bodies. It features forged steel goat hooves and TIG welded decorative brackets.

The left side panel painting is a variation on the “The First Flame” narrative which is a personal variation on the classic origin story of how fire was “brought” to Earth. The right side panel painting explores the universe just outside of The First Flame world, inspired by one of the current scientific hypothesis that ice rich asteroids provided Earth with the water it still has today.

Red Stoneware, ^10 Electric

8” x 5.5” x 1.5”

2024

This composition was inspired by the idea of Earth as a self-sustaining system. The choices in this piece are influenced by my drafting experience and my desire to create opportunities to show off the thickness-based nature of a green-blue glaze I was developing. The background shows the physics and effects of a single dip (holding the piece upside down); dark blue where the glaze had pooled, caught by raised waxed areas, and light green where the glaze was thinner. My choice of iron rich red stoneware amplifies these effects.

^10

Each bud vase is individually carved and/or glazed. I use these forms as larger test tiles, allowing me to explore glaze interactions, application techniques, and how oil painting and linoleum block carving techniques can be integrated into clay

A stained glass ode to pyrometric cones which are used to measure the temperature in a kiln.

It was made as a gift to The Steel Yard’s test kiln and lives above it.

linocuts carved by hand

Pottery created during my three month micro-residency at The Steel Yard (September - November)

Forged Mild Steel

2021

Each part is hand forged and then TIG welded together

2020

Mild steel

Copper

2019

3” X 3” X 3”

Copper

2019

25.5” x 10.5” x 24”

Cherry

Powder Coated Steel

Inspired by the communicative processes of wood and steel.

2018

16.5” x 16.5” x 40”

White Oak

Mild Steel

A friendly and domestic piece of furniture referencing metal shop tools and processes. A metal shop roller translated to clay, translated to wood.

2018

16” X 12” X 24”

White Oak

Mild Steel

2018

Mild steel flat bar

Mild steel sheet

Guitar string

Made in my first metal working course!

2018

Black Walnut

A rattle intended for a goat herder calling their flock.

2018

White Oak

Various Grains

Carvings made using hand tools such as gouges and bevel knives.

2017-2020

Tigerwood

Black Walnut

2017

14” x 32” x 23”

White Oak

Black Walnut

Birdwise

An obscure and interactive hanging wall decoration. The body is a hinge system while the pivots are hand carved birds becoming increasingly distorted.

2017

 White Mahogany Veneer

African Mahogany

A box that displays beat up boat shoes and the small items one finds at the beach.

2017

9.5” X 5.5” X 12”

Cherry

Ash Details

Sculptures completed for the Figure Modeling Marathon Winter Session class.

Plasticine

Wire Armature

A two player foosball table with bronze gongs acting as the goals. 

2016

30.5” X 13” X 29”

Bronze

Maple

Bubinga Details

Glass Table Top

Stainless Steel Rod.