Since age 15, Jordan Coons has been working with clay. Today, she’s one of only a few regional sculptors who uses what’s known as the double-walled technique, which allows the Syracuse-based artist to capture the paradoxical strength and delicacy of the medium.
Coons says the technique she’s perfected — a ceramic style composed of layers — has both a literal and metaphorical meaning.
“I refer to those as my lady vases," she said.
The “lady vases” are ceramic pieces with an internal vessel shaped like a feminine form encased in an intricate outer layer. Combining the two while the clay is still damp creates the “double wall.” There’s a solid vessel on the inside with a carved fragile, decorative cover.
This drives home Coons’ metaphor of the body being a vessel, which she notes holds our soul, mind and heart, while on the outside, individuals can choose how to present – wearing makeup, adding tattoos and picking clothes, that either reveal or fully cover the body.
“All of those stylistic choices that we present ourselves to the world, we're making conscious choices to either allow people to really see who we are or maybe we're trying to ward people off," she explained.
Because her pieces are structurally compromised by design, her pieces often break. Just like life, she says, there are multiple opportunities — from wedging or reclaiming your clay to the final firing — for mistakes to happen. But she embraces the challenge and has wanted art to be a part of her life since an early age.
“I was always that kid in elementary school, who was dying for art class and couldn't wait until we did a clay unit," she said." And I had seen videos of people on potter wheels and had just been dying to get to that point.”
But it wasn’t until sophomore year of high school that she took her first proper pottery classes. Coons continued her training in college. She also earned a master’s degree in art education, using her passion for ceramics to help her students discover their own creativity.
“My teaching style is more about offering kids very open-ended instruction and giving them tools to be successful, but then allowing them to feel safe in the environment to make mistakes. To also fumble their way through it," she said.
Coons’ pieces have been exhibited at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester and her lady cups are for sale often at regional arts and crafts festivals.
