Coil and Carve

Artist Statement:

For this project we were assigned to create something using the coil technique, I chose to make a thumb watering can. I first discovered thumb watering cans on social media, someone made a really cute one shaped like a fluffy cloud, and I knew that I needed to have one because I have lots of plants to water. A few weeks before we started this project, I tried to make a thumb watering can on the wheel, but I was just experimenting and having fun, nothing too serious. However when I heard about this project I knew that I'd have to give it another go.

The materials I used for this project were clay, varius carving tools, and SM-44 Glaze. To build the tumb watering can I rolled out a slab and build the coils up. After the clay was close to letaher hard I freestyled the swirls then applied glaze after it was bisqued fired.

When I was creating this project I ran into a few problems. First, I found it to be quite challenging to guide the coils inwards so the neck of the can could be thin enough to be functional. In order for the tumb watering can to work effecively the neck has to be thin enough to hold comfortably, and the top of the neck has to have a small enough hole so that your thumb can create a seal to prevent air from getting into the can and letting the water spill out. I also had to account for shrinkage and glaze and how that would make the top hole even smaller, but in the end it is functional. Another issue I ran into was not letting my coils harden enough before attaching them, they were still in the plastic stage. After the piece was build I noticed I was having problems with keeping the top upright which caused the piece to set a bit wonky. Overall, I still liked how the piece turned out, I like it has personallity. However if I were to create this piece again I would probably make it a little bigger, wait till the coils were leather hard to attach together, and just have more of an overall plan for its design.