mod crmx — Olive & West Photography

Liz Heller is the Aspen artist behind mod crmx, a line of functional porcelain vessels. Liz has an MFA in Sculpture from The University of Wisconsin at Madison and has been Aspen-based since 2015. When Liz isn’t working in her Red Brick Center for the Arts studio, or teaching at the Aspen campus of Colorado Mountain College, you’ll find her consumed by her other passion, training with The Aspen Triathalon Club.

Liz and I connected over Instagram just as she was embarking on a relaunching of her website. We collaborated over several months, doing a “meet the maker” photo session in the ceramics studio at CMC Aspen, documenting her work for her website/wholesale market/and Etsy, and creating lifestyle content showing her pieces in use.

Portrait, Liz Heller

Liz Heller of mod crmx outside the ceramics studio at the Aspen Campus of Colorado Mountain College.

Making a form

Liz must first assemble a form to create a mould.

Adding to the form

The form gets filled with clay to create the next layer.

Pouring the form

Liz pours material onto the form to add the next layer.

Revealing the mould

Once the form has dried, it is taken apart to reveal the mould inside.

Mixing porcelain

Liz does a style of ceramics called “slipcasting” where porcelain slip is poured into a mould to create a vessel.

Pouring the slip

Liz pours the porcelain slip into a mould made for a vase-shaped vessel.

Sealing the lip

As the mould absorbs moisture Liz will top-off the slip to keep the level up. She uses her finger to seal the slip against the top of mould to prevent separation.

Pouring out the excess slip

After a specific amount of time required to get the correct thickness of vessel, Liz pours out the excess slip.

Cleaning the mould

Liz cleans the top of the mould to get a cleaner vessel lip on the cast inside.

A mould with a cast

A top-down view of the slip cast vessel inside the mould. Once the cast drys sufficiently, it will be sturdy enough to disassemble the mould.

Disassembling the mould

The mould is made of puzzle pieces that can be easily removed.

Glazing a cup

In this image, Liz is glazing a small cup. The color of the wet glaze isn’t always the same color that will appear after it is fired.

Opening the kiln

Liz makes primarily modern, faceted vessels with a satin exterior and shiny interior.

Tall vase

I particularly enjoyed photographing her pieces, both for their unique texture, and for the way their facets create highlights and shadows on the object.