Jennifer Yap
I have enjoyed an eclectic career in theatre, dance, film and television as a publicist, stage manager, designer and technician. As a writer, my work has been published in the Canadian Theatre Review and Word Magazine. I also help moderate T.A.P.E., an online networking group for Toronto-based East Asian, Southeast Asian and Asian-Pacific entertainers and artists.
Production work has served as a useful cover for my love of pre-industrial and industrial-era technologies, and allowed me to learn many of the skills needed to run a small village - circa 1900.
Blame rests entirely on my grandmother, who taught me how to cross-stitch in the afternoons after kindergarten. This early addiction gradually blossomed into a general fascination with mechanical tools ranging from knitting needles to kick wheels, sailboats to bicycles. (Exceptions are made for electrically-driven woodworking tools, welding torches, and of course, for electric wheels and kilns).
I came to pottery by accident during a holiday in Turkey when, as an unsuspecting tourist, I was asked to throw a pot. Although this first piece collapsed soon after I started pulling up, I was hooked. After throwing almost exclusively for 5 years, I find myself drawn back to the more contemplative process of handbuilding.
My other obsessions are good food and wine, sailing, travel, history, video games, graphic novels/manga, international politics and uberkitsch.
Latest Articles
|
Wheel Throwing Tools: Japanese
Now that you have a full complement of throwing tools, it's time to get fancy and explore traditional Japanese pottery tools made out of bamboo, wood and iron.
Apr 30, 2007
- Jennifer Yap
|
|
Wheel Throwing Tools: Basic Kit
You need very little to throw a pot on the wheel: a pin tool, a sponge and a wire tool. But pottery kits come with a few more mystery objects. Find out what these can do.
Apr 24, 2007
- Jennifer Yap
|
|
Popular Pottery Techniques
Pinching yourself differentiating between soft slab and hard slab? Coiling your brains around throwing and moulding? Find out what some of these pottery terms mean.
Apr 14, 2007
- Jennifer Yap
|
|
Alexander Calder: Artist Biography
All the rage in the 1950's the mobile is a staple in art class. But this type of sculpture was only invented in the 1930's by an American son of the European avant-garde.
Apr 9, 2007
- Jennifer Yap
|
|
Cirque Calder
Combining sculpture, toys, engineering, whimsy, movement and performance, this miniature circus was a crucible for Calder's ideas and aesthetic, and inspired his mobiles.
Apr 2, 2007
- Jennifer Yap
|
|
Wire Sculpture: Materials & Tools
Twisting yourself up about sculpting with wire? Bend this hardware store staple to your fancy with this quick guide to materials and tools!
Mar 26, 2007
- Jennifer Yap
|
|
What Is Sculpture?
What comes to mind when you think of sculpture? How do you know if you're looking at a piece of sculpture? And how is sculpture made anyway?
Mar 19, 2007
- Jennifer Yap
|
|
DIY Improvised Press Moulds
Can't get hold of a plaster press mould? No problem. There're objects in the house and kitchen that will do just as well. Here are suggestions for substitutes around you.
Mar 5, 2007
- Jennifer Yap
|
|
Make a Press Moulded Bowl or Dish
Plaster press moulds can be used to start various projects or to produce multiples of any one design. Find out how to use one properly and how to fix basic problems.
Mar 2, 2007
- Jennifer Yap
|
|
MORI Masahiro: Artist Biography
Biography of MORI Masahiro, pioneer of post-war Japanese industrial design in ceramics and creator of the porcelain G-type Soy Sauce Bottle
Feb 12, 2007
- Jennifer Yap
|
