Arsen Gogchyan: "Buyers like works that have symbolism"

My name is Arsen Gogchyan, I was born and raised in Dilijan. I studied at the College of Economics in Dilijan, I liked this specialty, as it was related to finance. After graduation, I thought a lot about what I really want to do. My father was an artist and sculptor with extensive knowledge of clay and its properties, he studied at the Terlemezyan College of Art in this specialty. Now my father rarely works with clay, you can see sculptures made by his hands here. In addition to clay modeling, our family was fond of painting pictures, but now we rarely do it – all my time is spent working with clay.

I started learning the basics of pottery at the age of 20. At first I didn't really succeed, of course. My first clay work was the swan vase: we had ready-made plaster molds that my father made, and I filled them with clay. You need to put the clay in this mold with your fingers, and after pulling it out, make edits and change the shape if necessary.

At first, my work didn't sell very well – it's understandable why. This gave me an incentive to develop my skills, to think about what new I could do – and then sales began to increase. This allowed me to buy better materials for my work – clay, special paints. In addition, it used to be difficult to find good materials, now it's easier. I can say that the materials, of course, are quite expensive.

I can show you an example of working with paint. The back of the glass you see looks like coloured glass. This paint is obtained by mixing a transparent powder with a pigment. Basically, I don't make paints myself, I buy ready-made ones. Any product goes through the following stages: first, clay is prepared, then it is covered with paint three times, each of the layers must dry before a new coating, after painting, the clay object is fired in an oven at a temperature of 1000 degrees.

One of my most favorite works is a copy of an ancient vessel found several centuries BC, which was discovered during excavations and presented in the Department of Archeology of the Dilijan Museum of Local Lore. I tried, with the help of painting clay, to give the vessel a special metallic shade and depict animals like rock paintings – mountain goats.

Buyers like works that have symbolism. For example, I came up with a coffee cup with a picture of Ararat inside and an ark on top of it. When the cup is filled with liquid, you see a flood – and vice versa.

I am always glad to have guests! Come to my workshop - here I will teach you how to work with clay and together we will make your first work of art.