By Ezra Caber

Ceramics has long been a popular elective for Granada Hills Charter (GHC) students, who can often be seen showing off their latest creations. This year, students are getting a fresh take on the art form with a new ceramics and drawing teacher.

When Jillian Shea isn’t teaching students how to shape clay into vases and mugs, she spends her free time making ceramic corsets.

Shea’s journey into the fusion of art and fashion was inspired by her uncle, a fashion illustrator whose work focused on costumes and high fashion. His influence is evident in Shea’s creations which combine the structure of ceramics with the elegance of fashion.

Shea’s passion for ceramics began while studying Fine Arts at California State University Northridge (CSUN). Although she was initially drawn to the pottery wheel, she wanted to go into more sculptural art. This led to the creation of her ceramic corsets, which blended her love of both mediums.

Shea describes the corset process as more complicated than making a vase or dish. She starts by creating a sketch of a corset. Then, she rolls the clay out and places it on a mannequin to dry, forming her desired corset shape. After the slow drying process, she fires the corset, applies a glaze, and fires it again. Her finishing touch is lacing an elastic or ribbon to harness the corset, making it a wearable piece.

In creating the corsets, she explained that the biggest challenge was keeping the clay’s moisture content while working on it for longer periods, which is a challenge since it is a bigger piece.
Some of Shea’s favorite pieces are her ice cream corsets, inspired by her childhood summers in the San Fernando Valley. Collaborating with local artist Jasmine Diana, Shea worked to evoke nostalgia for childhood. Diana previously worked with oil paint, so working with ceramics was a new experience for her. Together, they combined their strengths. In these pieces, Shea successfully captures the nostalgia of getting a cartoon character-shaped popsicle from an ice cream truck.

“A lot of my work is about femininity, sensitivity, and strength,” Shea said. “I see a lot of parallels between these themes and clay. I like the correlation of clay being a delicate but durable material and the connection of these concepts to my other art.”