Expressive Clay

explosive
emotional
sharp

Air-dry clay is commonly understood as a lightweight, easily shaped, yet predominantly static material. To explore a more expressive potential of clay, this project deliberately avoids the conventional “fixed after forming” approach and attaching uniform air-dry clay spike units to a textile, this project creates a hybrid system between rigidity and flexibility, enabling clay to gain dynamic capacity and interact with external forces.

As a tablecloth, the product not only provides basic surface protection but also uses the arrangement of clay elements on a waterproof textile to suggest tableware placement and create natural zones of separation during use, reducing direct contact between hot objects and the table surface. Despite incorporating clay, the product remains foldable and storable, challenging the conventional perception of ceramic materials as rigid, fixed, and non-deformable.

Clay is a material defined by its plasticity, allowing repeated shaping in a wet state and retaining its form once dried. As a type of clay that hardens without firing, air-dry clay is lightweight and easy to work with, and is commonly used for rapid prototyping and small-scale form experiments.