Material: Porcelain, Stoneware
Trigger: heat
Frustrated Ceramics present a novel approach to the ancient old processing of ceramic material, suggesting self-shaping of clay, from 2D sheet to a complex 3D shape. Capitalizing on the natural shrinkage of clay material during the firing process, Frustrated Ceramics is a bi-layer composed of two clay types (porcelain and stoneware), having different shrinkage coefficient.
Triggered by heat, internal stresses develop in the material during the firing process, becoming a frustrated material. These result in the self-morphing of the flat bi-layer into a complex 3D shape. The resulting is predictable, and is parametrically controlled through different variables such as thickness, material architecture and grooves.
Introducing grooves in the high-shrinking porcelain surface, we control the orientation of curvature, while grooving of the lower-shrinking stoneware, affects the amount of curvature.
The Racah Institute of Physics (The Hebrew University)
Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning (Technion - Israel Institute of Technology)
Hagar Ofek
Ofri Dar
Arielle Blonder
Shira Shoval
Eran Sharon
All clay materials shrink in the firing process, each with a different shrinkage coefficient according to its mineral content. Combining clay materials of two different types, we make a flat ceramic bi-layer that develops internal stresses during the firing process. The frustrated ceramic material morphs in the firing kiln to its programmed shape, controlled parametrically through variables of thickness, material architecture and grooves.