Ceramics I

REFLECTION: This semester in Ceramics I, the piece that I am most proud of is my coil and carve vase. Even though I haven't finished glazing it yet, I really like the design I chose. After making the base and smoothing it out, I was unsure of what to do, so I decided to carve a design that I usually draw on paper because I thought it could look cool. I did this design in an eye-shaped cut out and then drew the design in the eye-shaped cut out. I thought I was done, but I wasn't satisfied, so I let it sit and thought about it a little longer. There was still a lot of empty space without a design, so I decided to carve shallow squiggles and lines all over the vase to give it more of an interesting texture. What I would like to do is glaze it dark purple in the eye shapes and then fade it into a dark blue. I liked most about this project was how original it turned out.

I learned a lot about the clay and its different textures, depending on moisture and exposure, etc. This year it was difficult because there was a week between our classes, most of the time, so sometimes my clay dried out and I had issues getting the things to turn out the way I wanted them to. This helps me get better at planning ahead and really having to think about the design component by component and the order of assembly. Also, I learned the pinch pot, coil, and slab techniques. I really liked making coil pots and I felt like this is what I am best at.

I really liked this course and I wish we had more time in class periods to do more projects, but overall I'm proud of most of my work.