Ceramics I

Payton Hughes "Solar System"

Stackable bowls, stoneware, glass, 2021

My original idea was to make a bowl but needed to make the project nine inches tall to meet the requirement. Mrs. Dunlavey suggested that I make a series of bowls to meet the requirement, so I decided to make three. My friend mentioned that the first bowl that I made looked like saturn before glazing, so I got the idea to design the three bowls to look like something from the solar system. The first thing I did was make a slab. I used a block and a half of clay, kneaded it to get air bubbles out, and then used a rolling pin to flatten it out. I placed the slab on top of a foam ball that sits inside a bowl and began pressing downwards to mold it into a bowl. After I was done, I made it the size I wanted, pinched the extra clay off, then used a scraper and got rid of bumps. When I was doing that, I accidentally made holes because of the bowl being thin. So, I fixed it by using a small piece of clay and pressed it over any spots that needed to be repaired. The rim of the bowl was uneven, so I used a fettling knife and cut around it. The second thing I did was add a foot. I used my hands and rolled a piece of clay into coil, then used the scraper and scored the bottom of the coil and where I wanted the foot to be. The next thing I did was brush slip where I scored on the bowl and placed the coil on the bottom of the bowl. Then, I used a flat wooden tool and pushed down the edges of the coil. I used my finger and a scraper to smooth out clay around the foot. The third thing I did was work on the inside. I used a scraper tool and smoothed the inside of the bowl. While I was doing that, I made sure to not put too much pressure on the bowl so that I didn’t stretch it out by accident. After I was finished working on the inside, I placed the bowl back on the foam ball and used a scraper to get rid of bumps on the rim. Lastly, I used a needle tool and carved my name on the bottom of the bowl and waited for it to dry. After the bowl was fired, I used sandpaper and sanded it down. Then, I rinsed it with water, and began glazing. I painted three coats of Cosmic Tea Dust on the inside and Smokey Merlot on the outside with a wide brush. When I was glazing the bottom of the bowl, I used a small brush so that I didn’t paint the foot. The process of making this bowl was very similar to my first one. The things I did differently for this one was that I didn’t roll out the slab too thin. I also made the rim wavy by using a fettling knife and then bent it outwards so that the “flames” were sticking out. After it was fired, I painted on three coats of Albany Slip Brown and waited 15 minutes in between each coat. The process of making this bowl was also similar to the other ones, except when I designed the bowl, I used a needle tool and made a straight line around the outside of the bowl. I also added a foot on the bottom of the bowl, but I made it look different. I did it by placing the foot in a wavy pattern. Then on the inside, I drew Antarctica on the bottom of the bowl, then Africa and other continents along the side of the bowl. After it was fired, I sanded down the bowl but forgot to rinse it before I started glazing. I first glazed the outside of the bowl. Above the line, I painted on Frosted Turquoise and below the line I painted on Blue Midnight. I did three coats for both colors and made sure to wait fifteen minutes for it to dry. After I was finished with the outside, I worked on the inside. For the continents, I painted on Seaweed. For water, I used Blue Midnight and for Antarctica I used Arctic Blue. I want my audience to think about the solar system when they look at my artwork. One thing that was difficult for me to do when I worked on my artwork was repairing holes. After I pinched off the extra clay from the three bowls, it was difficult for me to smoothen out the clay. The reason why is because I couldn’t push too hard on the clay so that I didn’t stretch the bowl out. When I pushed too hard on the clay, it would cause holes or uneven spots. I solved the problem by using extra clay to repair them. If I could start over on the Earth bowl, I would’ve made the curves on the foot more round. I could’ve fixed that by using a longer piece of coil to make sure I had enough clay to add the curves. If I could start over on the galaxy bowl, I wouldn’t have rolled the slab out less than I did because it was thinner than I wanted it to be. One thing that I like about my artwork is how the Earth bowl turned because of the details I added on the inside of the bowl.

Payton Hughes "Tasi"

6X6.6X10 (Inches), stoneware, glass, 2021

I wanted to do something different and challenging. So, I decided to make a coil vase. The reason why is because I have never made a coil project before and thought making it ten inches would be challenging for me. I looked at different vases to help me get an idea of how I wanted mine to look. After looking, I decided that I wanted to make the bottom wide and have the top of the vase be thinner. I thought that it would be a good idea because it would help me practice working on moving the rows inward.

The started my project by making a base. I did that by flattening out a block of clay with a rolling pin. I cut out a base by placing a container lid on top and cutting around the lid with a fettling knife. The next thing I did was make coil by using the coil press. When I finished that, I used a plastic fork and scored around the edge of the base. Then, I used a wooden tool and put slip on where I scored. I placed the coil on top of the slip and lightly pressed it down. When I got done working with the coil, I pinched off the extra clay so that I could start a new row instead of continuously wrapping the same coil around to make the vase. I wanted the inside of the vase to be smooth, so I used the round wooden tool and lightly pressed on the clay to flatten it. After that, I put slip on top of the coil I just put down on the base and started a new row of coil. I repeated this process until I was done making the vase. When I wanted the shape of the vase to be smaller. I would lay the coil closer to the inside of the vase and when I didn’t want the shape of the vase to change, I laid the coil centered on top of the bottom coil. I made a line from the top of the vase to the bottom, to show where I started and stopped in each row. After it was fired in the kiln, I sanded it down and then rinsed it under the sink with water. I used a wide paintbrush and painted three coats of Midnight Blue and then three coats of Textured Turquoise. Then I painted three coats of Iron Yellow on the inside of the vase. When I was glazing the inside of the vase, I tilted it to the side so that it would be easier for me to paint. There is really no meaning to this artwork other than the color. I wanted the coils and the color of the two glazes together to give off a wave effect. When an audience looks at my artwork, I want them to think about the ocean. When I was working at the top of the vase, it was difficult for me to smoothen the inside because there was little space I could work in. I overcame this struggle by using a wooden tool to smoothen out spots I wasn’t able to reach. Something that I would change about my vase would be to make it more centered. When you look at the vase you notice in the middle of the vase, some of the rows are moved more to one side. I love how the glaze turned out because I used two different glazes for this artwork and didn’t know how it was going to look until after it was fired. The reason why I like how the glaze turned out is because I like how the color blended together. It has a traditional shape.