Firebird Ladle
Firebird Ladle By Victoria Gustareva
Chamotte, glazes, hand building, reduction firing with smoke 2024. Length 530 mm, height 200 mm, depth 180 mm 2.6 kg Created in a single copy. Price 85000₽
The ladle was created as a decorative object (vase, art object) and intended to decorate a modern interior and introduce Russian national flavor into it. It can be used in interior design of residential and public spaces (restaurants, cafes).
The ladle may be interesting to people who appreciate manual work and love Russian culture and are looking for interesting solutions for their interior
A ladle is a traditional item of Russian everyday life, which has a very recognizable shape, and although in the modern world the ladle has lost its original meaning, its outline is read by us as an element of the Russian cultural code.
The basic shape of the object is typical for ancient Russian waterfowl-shaped ladles. I also used the image of the mythical character of Russian folk tales, the Firebird, which was presented as a symbol of fire, light, and sun. The handle of the ladle is created in the shape of her tail and has a red and gold hue.
The firebird ladle is made of chamotte clay by hand building and fired in a reduction firing with smoking. This type of firing helped to implement my idea of the «Old Russian» ladle and the Firebird’s tail with fiery plumage.
As for the decoration I used white and green copper glazes, typical for reduction firing. White glaze was applied to the ladle directly and, when smoked, it acquired interesting effects — craquelure and silver stains, which gives the surface this ‘touched by time’ look. The copper-containing glaze applied to the handle-tail of the ladle was restored during the firing process and has a color from green to golden-red.
In the old days in Russia a ladle was a common element of everyday life. The firebird in Russian fairy tales was something very hard to reach. By combining these two facts in my artwork I wanted to show that in the modern world the traditional Russian ladle is now as much a rarity as the firebird in a Russian fairy tale.
