Historical Coil Pot

For my historical coil pot project, I chose an egyptian ceramic hippopotamus sculpture. I rolled out clay into long coils, and stacked them on top of one another (like the coil-and-carve pot) to make its body out of one large coil pot. Then I made a pinch pot which I attached to the top of the coil pot for its head, and I added some small bits of clay for its eyes, and I formed its snout by pushing the clay out from inside of the pot before I attached it. I added the legs last by rolling short, thick coils and cutting them with wire so they would be straight on the bottom.

In order to modernize this sculpture, decided to make the glaze in a striped pattern. I used green-blue and yellow semi-matte glazes. In order to make the stripes, I taped off the parts I was using for one color at a time, that way I could make clean lines all the way around. I applied three coats of the blue glaze, then I put tape over the glazed area and glazed the rest with three coats of yellow. One thing I learned from this project is that it is easier to make large sculptures by making them one piece at a time, and joining the pieces together.