Coil & Carve

The assignment was to learn how to make a coil pot and just coils in general. I made a pot with a funky design. To make this I used brown clay, smoothing tools, carving tools and pc glaze. I made my coils by rolling them out by hand.

The final pot has color from the glaze, lines from my carving, texture from the carving and the clay, and there is a pattern. This pot started as a flat circle and then I built up using coils everytime I added three coils I smoothed the inside and outside until it was the height I wanted. I let it try out till it became leather hard and I used a metal carving tool to cut out my pattern. After I finished carving I let it dry out and be bisque fired. After the bisque firing I glazed the inside and the outside. The inside (not pictured) is PC-27 which is Tourmaline, I did 3 coats. The outside (pictured above) is PC-20 which is Blue Rutile, I did 3 coats for this as well. After glazing it was fired once more.

I have made coil pots before, but never well. This was the first one where I made decent coils and built it well. This project relates to my life because I made it and I chose how to add a pattern and how to glaze it. I am proudest of its form and how the glaze looks. I struggled with making coils at first, but my coil making increased in quality as I made them. I think this pot could be stronger around the pattern part, it isn't evenly cut and there are little-sharp pieces sticking out. If I was to redo that part I would wait for my pot to dry out more before carving, hopefully that would make it cleaner.