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

Research:

Angela Adams + William Morris

Throwing Cylinders Video Analysis

Reflection:

This was the first time in years I had thrown on the wheel and it took some time to relearn what it feels like and how to orient myself. When coming back to an old skill, it is important to persist through the mistakes and challenges you might face, because they are a natural part of the learning process and will build your resilience. Throwing cylinders also requires patience and careful attention, it took me a couple tries to be comfortable again with the wheel; before I knew it I had made four cylinders, two of which were pretty good! Once I picked the two cylinders I was going to use for our project, then came the struggle of designing what I wanted them to look like. I knew I wanted to incorporate rain drop ripples on the surface of water, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to invert the design. With much persistence, redesign, and help from Mrs. Houston, I landed on a strategy for each piece that would connect well to each other, and carry my design through. Something I might do differently next time we do a project like this is envision the whole piece from the start. Sketch out the pieces, the design I think I want, and what colors I might use. The idea of the big picture from the very start will allow me to better focus on each step in the process, as I am working towards a specific, drawn-out goal. While I love my normal strategy of ‘plan it out as you go’, I would like to experiment with the strategy of putting it all on paper from the beginning. I also can now confidently say that carving is my favorite method of surface manipulation, so I would like to incorporate more of that into my future pieces. I decided to recreate ripples on the surface of water because I went on an amazing rainy walk in Pratt’s Brook over the summer and I knew that I wanted to use that natural pattern for something creative. I landed on carving the ripples into one cylinder, and water etching the other. I think these techniques were perfect for illustrating ripples because they allow you to add dimension, giving my pattern a more realistic feel. Ripples are not flat, some of the circles within each ripple rise slightly above the surface, and some dip slightly below; the carving and water etching helped me illustrate both parts of that.