coil and carve

For this project, we were asked to create a decently sized cup from rolled pieces of clay, called a coil. To create these cups we needed to roll up pieces of clay until they were about a half-inch thick, then with that rolled piece of clay you would establish a base and connect the beginning of the coil to the base, with the scratch, scratch, water, attach technique. After, you would continue to spiral the coil around on top of itself until it reached a good height. Eventually, once the coils were set in place, we were asked to smooth them out so it looked like a natural cup, without a bunch of individual lines. To finish up the project we were asked to carve into the cup in some way shape or form. This is when I decided to cut circular holes into my cup, but also have some circles that were just outlined. In order to carve into the clay successfully I had to wait until the clay was leather hard, so about 1 class after finishing the stack of 4-8 coils.

For this project, the major elements of design that were included consisted of form, shape, and color. Form and shape were used when constructing the physical coiled cup, and when the circles and shapes were cut and carved into the cup. The color was used when I was glazing the final product GLAZE. The principles of design I used I believe to be variety. This is because seen in the image on this page, the circles are all different shapes and sizes, to create emphasis along with it. An obstacle that I had to overcome was getting the coils to remain sturdy when on top of themselves, and along with this, keeping the coils the same size so the cup was a uniform shape. Especially when smoothing out the coils, seen in the image, the final product is a bit wonky, because I didn't have that stabilization. So, to overcome this obstacle, I believe the specific carvings I have, distract from that hiccup.