Design Story: Stormware
I grew up about a block away from the ocean in Northeast Florida, and weather patterns were a major part of my life as a youngster. Hurricanes brought huge waves to surf, calm summer days brought a hellish miasma of bugs and humidity, and during the winter and fall nor’ easters brought dramatic wind and a pervasive oceanic smell to everything. Thunderstorms occurred daily in the summer, and I always had to keep one eye on the sky as the afternoon approached. The flatness of the landscape of my youth gave me plenty of opportunities to watch clouds form, disperse, re-form, and as lightning formed they become huge mountains of light. In such a flat landscape, the storm clouds are like mountains (but more interesting): distant, huge, and a constant reminder of nature’s power.
Stormware came out of our development of Cloudware- the obvious next step from a weather pattern perspective. I love the drama of it- a dark background with white clouds, streaked through by the darker background. On a Fruit Bowl or Vase you can really see this to great effect- a weather pattern captured forever in clay.
I think that Stormware and Cloudware are a reflection of the natural cycles in weather- A clear sky develops a cloud, a cloud becomes a thunderhead, the rain cools the earth and nourishes it, evaporates into the clear sky and becomes a cloud again- and on and on, hopefully forever.