Two Cylinders, Two Surfaces

Essential Question: What role does persistence play in revising, refining, and developing work?

Learning Goal: Successfully throw two or more 4”+ cylinders on the wheel. Create two related surfaces using two different techniques

Artists Studied: Angela Adams & William Morris 

1. The Essential Question of this project is: What role does persistence play in revising, refining, and developing work?  How would you respond to this question?  How did persistence work into the results of your cylinders with throwing and finishing?

Persistence plays a big role in making sure your work is the best it can be. Ceramics can be a difficult activity to maintain persistence in because the way your piece turns out can differ. However, it is essential to not give up and keep persevering throughout the process. Something that was difficult for me during this project was when I broke one of my pieces right before glazing. I had just finished water-etching my original cylinder, and as soon as I went to grab the glaze, a large part of it chipped off. I was very disappointed because I had spent a lot of time trying to make the correct cylinder on the wheel that met all the standards we were being graded on. I experienced a lot of doubt and didn’t think I would be able to make the deadline for finishing and firing our cylinders. Thankfully, I found a cylinder that met the requirements. I then used my resources and finally finished water-etching my second cylinder on the same day. 

2. Explain what you might do similarly or differently next time on a similar project, due to gained experience from working with new surface techniques and/or the influence of looking at others’ work.

Something that I would have done differently on these pieces would have been to put more variety of bubbles on my carved piece. I think I did a good job with the lines around it, but I wish that I added large carved pieces. Something I wish I had done differently on my water-etched piece would be adding different colors of blue around the sea foam. I did the whole piece in teal blue, but now that I see it after it’s been glazed, I wish I added different colors.

3. What aspect(s) of nature did you decide to illustrate with your work and what did you do to alter and connect your designs on the two cylinders? Describe the surface altering techniques you used and describe how you think each technique enhanced or detracted from your designs.  

The aspect of nature I decided to illustrate with my cylinders is the waves of the ocean. On my bigger piece, I carved out squiggly lines that wrapped around the cylinder that represented waves. On my small cylinder, I used my idea of sea foam and executed that on the outside. I water-etched small bubbles and surrounded them with a larger bubble. I glazed everything but the carved-out lines and the bubbles in teal blue. I think the water-etching enhanced my designs because it gave a new perspective of the bubbles themselves. They look more amplyfied overall.