SU Fall 2019 Advanced Ceramics (all levels)
Art 415 (Ceramics III) Assignment #1: Wet to Dry 'Green' Techniques
Students submit at least 6 Pots/Forms utilizing all of the following techniques (can be used in several combinations):
Wet (right off the wheel):
~Altering the form by pushing out from the inside, or pushing in from the outside.
~Cutting out ‘darts’ to change the form
~Drawing with a needle tool, changing the quality of the line by changing the form
~Applying slip to the surface, slip-trailing, flashing slips, etc.
Wet Leather Hard (the form can be handled without deforming, but it can also be shaped; if you try to carve the trimmings still stick to the pot):
~Paddling the form with a stick or flat paddle; re-shaping the form
~Applying slip to the surface, slip-trailing, flashing slips, etc.
Medium Leather Hard (the clay contains water, but cannot bend or be paddled; much like the consistency of chocolate):
~Faceted and Carved Surfaces. Interesting designs can be created by ‘peeling’ the surface of the pot with a fettling knife (much like you would remove the skin from an apple). Ribbon tools and Xacto knives can be used to create designs on the surface of leather hard forms.
~Trimming the pot on the wheel head
~Additions (adding handles, surface details, etc.)
Bone Dry:
~Applying wax resist to certain areas, letting it completely dry, and then wiping back the surface to ‘erode’ the clay, creating depressions wherever wax was not applied.
For the purposes of this assignment, the forms we create on the pottery wheel will be blank canvases for many exciting form alteration and surface decoration techniques. Do not think of the pot straight from the potter’s wheel as a sacred object, and avoid worrying about your personal ‘style’ preferences or concept development – the main goal of this assignment is to explore a wide range of altered form and surface design techniques. The emphasis of the grade will be on craftsmanship, and how comprehensively you have approached every technical aspect of the assignment. Content and Concept will be explored in further assignments.
These 'chickens' were thrown on the wheel and altered, and also decorated with clay slips (slips brushed-on, and slip-trailing). They are all between 6" and 9" tall, fired to cone 6 in a soda atmosphere (gas kiln) to cone 6.