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Welcome!
Welcome!
Mountain View High School offers a year-long introductory level Ceramics 1 course and AP 3D Studio Art. Our students work in a community ceramics studio, where they grow creative, analytical, and technical visual art and design skills.
Hands-on projects and activities emphasize goal-setting, creative design thinking, planning, responsibility, mutual support, fun, and connections to the world outside our classroom.
(If the donation link above doesn't work, please visit the MV Webstore, Select "Start Again," then "Mountain View Other School Items", then "Ceramics Class Donations". Thank you for your patience...it's a new system.)
All donations are tax deductible and are used to purchase classroom supplies necessary for our students.
Ceramics 1 suggested donation is $150.
AP3D Studio Art suggested donation is $165.
For Tax Deductible Donations, please use:
District Tax ID No. 77-0209871
Contact Edwienna Grant in the Finance Office for more information on tax deductible donations.
It's in the details....
It's in the details....
As the last few sgraffito tiles hit the kiln, Ceramics 1 students are busy crafting lidded slab boxes, using the fundamental clay knowledge they acquired in our first unit. They start with solid construction of a box of any shape and then begin using multiple texture and lid strategies to customize based on their own unique ideas and styles. These work-in-progress snapshots come from today's tutorial.
A strong opening for '25-26's Ceramics 1 classes!
A strong opening for '25-26's Ceramics 1 classes!
While not everyone has completed the sgraffito project, select students did submit work this week and it does not disappoint! The students are showing persistence, embracing a new type of challenge, and responsiveness to coaching and feedback from peers and teacher alike. Sgraffito is substantially more difficult than drawing with a pen or pencil on paper due to irregular textures and changing levels of moisture in the clay and underglaze, not to mention a variety of tools and the fact that you can't really erase a mistake. Kudos to this year's student artists!
'25 Home stretch!
'25 Home stretch!
Below are a few snapshots of final projects, including batches of thrown wares and larger and more intricate projects from the free choice, student-designed assignment from April. Lots of growth to be proud of this year, and lots of dedication during that more student-driven work phase! Kudos to all!
Please join us April 15 in the MVHS Library for our 2025 Art Show Opening!
Please join us April 15 in the MVHS Library for our 2025 Art Show Opening!
Coil Pots are growing taller and more beautiful by the day! 2/25
Coil Pots are growing taller and more beautiful by the day! 2/25
The goal is for a pot plus lid to reach 10 inches height and the pot must neatly show a patterned surface texture. Other than that, students have full creative license. Inspirations include Roberto Lugo, Nicolette Johnson, and masters from traditions worldwide.
Advisory Week 1/17-24
Advisory Week 1/17-24
Tutorials: Stop by Room 111 to learn about Ceramics and AP3D Design!
Lunch 1/23-24: Pottery Wheel Demonstrations and Course Q&A
Library (anytime): See AP3D Design student projects highlighting the process of inquiry and student reflections on the course.
12/9/24: Semester 1 draws to a close
What an incredible group we have this year!
Students have learned the basics of our studio operations, moving from complete newbies to talented and reflective young artists. Ceramics 1 hand-building projects are beginning to show incredible awareness of clay properties and the patience to execute some very tough techniques, and they're learning both underglaze and low fire glaze finishing techniques. I am kvelling, but the projects below demonstrate how dedicated and creative our student group this year has been. Truly impressive work.
While semester 1 focuses on slab and pinch pot techniques, semester 2 will usher in the beginning of throwing using the potters wheel and coil pots. We will continue to push sculpting, surface decoration, and we will be bringing in a third glaze strategy: dipping in mid-fire glazes.
Knowing delicate wares are on their way home, you may wish to consider bringing a small box and some newspaper or padding to your finals period. This will help ensure that your fragile wares make it home safely.
5/24: Nearing the finish line...
With only 3 class periods plus finals left to go this year, we are seeing the final works finish up. At this time, students are working on a two part final "exam" to document and explain their progress over the semester, as well as their self-initiated final projects. Final projects gave full freedom for students to manage their time, project design, themes, construction methods, and glazing. Students were pushed to show off their best skills and demonstrate sustained excellence over the multi-week work time. The results have personalities as varied as the students themselves. Photos below feature a few finished final projects and a few other projects that have come out of the kiln recently.
Final projects are underway! Students design their own fantasy ceramics projects and then manage their time to execute plans on a rigid schedule. This is tough but the progress is impressive. Grades are based on time management, ambition of design, and staying true to an on-level proposal as well as all of the normal goals about structural integrity, thickness, and neatness.
4/28: The Visual Arts Annual Show was great!
After months of learning, refining, and mutual support on clay and glaze assignments, students bravely placed their art work out for the public to see. The growth between first and second semester Ceramics was also on display. While every project came from Ceramics 1, the incredible details in clay and glaze as well as the impressive scale of second semester projects clearly showed some students with advanced skill. (Tell them to take AP 3D Art next year!)
In class we continue finishing up old projects and a DIY final, which students design themselves. Time management is a key part of the project design and execution, since the final firing date is absolutely non-negotiable.
Below are some photos of work from the Art Show, as well as some in progress pieces
Student artists were required to create coil pots featuring some combination of textural or glaze details to evoke a specific memory, myth, or story. Techniques were completely decided by students and they chose sgraffito, carving out, adding appliqué clay ("sprigging on"), imprinting and drawing on clay, or painting smooth pots with low fire glazes.
3/15: Finding our center
Quite a few students have now found their centering method on the potter's wheel. We're seeing small vases, bowls, and cups appear along with huge smiles. Learning to center is the foundation that makes throwing pots an almost meditative hobby or passion. Like anything you have to truly earn, it can be confusing at the start, but you appreciate it more when you progress!
3/10: Coil pots completed, food begins
As the last few coil pots are drying and moving through the bisque firing process, students are busy brainstorming and beginning their sculpting and modeling projects. Each student chooses either a face or a food to portray with extreme attention to texture details and proportionality. The goal is deceptively real-looking final projects so don't pop that delicious strawberry in your mouth too quickly!
These projects are genuinely tough but our artists are putting in the time and effort to reach some impressive creative goals. Coil pots have revealed how much students learned in first semester, and how their creative sides can shine. Kudos artists!
2/13: Coil pots are kind of a big deal
While we're still in the greenware phase, some students are 'remembering what they know' and integrating our first major technique (sgraffito) into their more advanced coil pot projects. Others are emphasizing texture to tell a personal memory or story. Others will portray their myth, memory, or story using glazes after the first firing. Fingers crossed that we get these pieces glazed and out of the kiln before our Spring Art Show in April!
12/20: So much glazed work!
Below are some Ceramics 1 student projects from semester 1, which succeeded at personal expression through strong and stable structures, added textures, glazing with glossy and matte colors, neatness, and functional aspects like lids and handles.
Enjoy!!
12/12: Glaze ware is out!
Friday pm
Friday pm
Glazes start in the kiln looking like dusty pastel colors...
Monday am
Monday am
...but they are transformed to brighter shiny shades by the heat of nearly 1900F.
12/1: Color!
Our glaze table at this time has a bunch of brand new test tiles indicating the colors, opacity, layering, and flow of various glazes. These glazes are mixed and matched, and sometimes blended according to students' personal goals for their monster, slab dish, and mug projects.
Planning, recording procedures and glaze numbers, and precise application are key at this stage.
As we say, "Every great ceramic work needs to be made twice: once as a clay form, and again as a glazed final piece."
Just as cake begins as a liquid and ends as a fluffy, sliceable treat, our clay pots undergo big changes in the heat. It can be hard for new potters to imagine the chalky pink glaze will later be a glassy fire engine red. Glazed pieces will emerge from their second firing as soon as next week. Colors will indeed be brighter and bolder!
11/18: A few new potters have taken the wheel!
A few early finishers and eager students tried their hand at the wheel. Most will begin wheel work in Ceramics Club or 2nd semester.
ELD students practice ceramics with the added challenge of understanding fast directions in their second language.
All students are hand-building mugs based on personal stories, hobbies and passions. Glaze colors to be added soon!
Team work,
dream work ...
Ceramics students are constantly collaborating and supporting each other's projects.
10/25: Room 111 has been taken over by 150 little monsters, but don't send help.
We're still having a lot of fun with them.
Boo.
Boo.
These are going to be so fun to show off in our library and at Advisory Day this winter!
The forms, textures, and expressive personalities are completely unique and show growing originality and design-thinking skills.
Also, key point for parents: your kids are actually pretty great at keeping our classroom and tools clean lately. <3
9/3o: Now we're cookin'! Sgraffito bisque fired; textured dishes drying; MVHS Ceramics featured in MVLA Magazine!
MVLA Magazine Feature
MVLA Magazine Feature
Students engaged their personal interests in their first 3-dimensional projects: textured slab dishes. This student is working on a sugar skull pattern (pictured at right).
Exemplary finished work is ready for a bisque fire, then colored glazing, then glaze firing ... and THEN it's complete and ready for art show displays and use.
Exemplary finished work is ready for a bisque fire, then colored glazing, then glaze firing ... and THEN it's complete and ready for art show displays and use.
Ceramics class teaches a lot of life skills, not the least of which is patience!
Sgraffito Bisque Fired! (Do you see your piece?)
Sgraffito Bisque Fired! (Do you see your piece?)
While we had a slow start to the year due to the larger new kiln installation, we're now up and running. (We're blessed to have new kiln shelves coming in ... soon too. This will help us get more work fired each in each batch.
Our after-hours firings take hours to preheat, fire over 2000 degrees F, and then cool back down before unloading the kiln. You can see why we need additional shelving and kiln furniture to make the most of each firing.
9/2o: Textured Slab Boxes due soon; new kiln ... not yet functional :(
Our slab boxes feature several types of texture, as we practice carving, adding clay, constructing walls, and pressing stamps into leather hard clay.
Our slab boxes feature several types of texture, as we practice carving, adding clay, constructing walls, and pressing stamps into leather hard clay.
9/2: Sgraffito tiles are wrapping up and the new kiln was installed!
Sgraffito is a technique used in ancient and modern times, historically throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Students applied layers of underglaze to measured tiles of wet clay and then scratched away black to reveal white clay below, forming a line drawing with texture.
Sgraffito is a technique used in ancient and modern times, historically throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Students applied layers of underglaze to measured tiles of wet clay and then scratched away black to reveal white clay below, forming a line drawing with texture.
These tiles are still air drying before their bisque firing, then they will head to the library for display.
These tiles are still air drying before their bisque firing, then they will head to the library for display.
Congrats on these beautiful pieces, which show your willingness to try new and challenging tasks, persistence, and artistic skill!
Congrats on these beautiful pieces, which show your willingness to try new and challenging tasks, persistence, and artistic skill!
8/31: Hot out of the old kiln! (New kiln to be installed soon, we hope!)
We got chops! (AKA signature stamps or makers' marks)
We got chops! (AKA signature stamps or makers' marks)
The very first wet clay assignment of the year was to design a signature stamp or "chop" for use on future pottery. The best ones give a little personality and maybe even tell a story in a tiny graphic.
Kudos Spartan potters!
The ask: Competitively cute
The ask: Competitively cute
During the "Clay Olympics" students experimented with properties of clay. We asked how tall, voluminous, how durable, and -- you guessed it -- how cute can clay be. This cutie snuck into the kiln while all the others played by the rules and got recycled.
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