Multiple Pinch Pot Assignment

Progress Photos

Artist Statement:

For this project, I had to create something out of clay that included at least five pinch pots. I had been practicing the pinch technique previously in my intro to pinch pots assignment. At first, I didn't know what to make for this project because I thought it seemed very difficult to incorporate so many pinch pots into one sculpture but when I thought of a caterpillar I immediately wrote down my sketch. My sculpture included nine pinch pots with two for each sphere and the head. I didn't connect any of the pinch pots until I had made them all. I did this because they would all be about the same texture and dryness. I smoothed out each sphere and connected them to each other to make the body and lastly, I added the head. I poked holes in the bottoms of my spheres so that they would not explode in the Kiln. My caterpillar is not at all realistic but that was not the goal. I used green and red glaze to add color to my caterpillar because it reminded me of the children's book, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar".

This caterpillar took me a while to make and I like how it turned out. If I were to change anything about it, I might have added some little legs to it just to add some extra detail. The hardest part of this project was connecting all of the pinch pots together in order to make them even. For one of them, I had to add a coil in between them so that they would be secure. I also had to make sure that the spheres were smooth and not lumpy. Another challenge to this sculpture was making sure everything stuck together and stayed together. I had to make a little newspaper stand to keep the head of the caterpillar lifted so that the spheres would not separate.