Ceramics III

Final Reflection

I am proudest of my Templates and Multiples assignment. I made a set of three small flower dishes and then one that was the same shape, but larger. It improved my hand-building skills. With the smaller dishes, I had to be very careful with the details and be careful to not crush anything. It was also harder to get into the cracks, so smoothing things was hard. With the large dish, it was challenging because I had never made something that big before. I had to roll out several different slabs and make sure they would be big enough to fit my template. I learned a lot more about the hand-building process, including techniques and slab rolling.

I think that the most informative thing we saw this semester was all of the art in the Met. It was so incredibly cool to see all of that art, especially with the history behind it. It made me think about all the different ways to get inspiration. I loved seeing certain pieces of art that weren’t necessarily ceramics and I’ve definitely been inspired by them with ideas of things I want to create. I loved seeing stained glass, glass forms, paintings of landscapes, and such interesting designs on a lot of the artwork.

I have definitely been influenced by nature during this semester, as I said I hoped to be at the beginning. I used a lot of greens and incorporated flowers into almost all of my pieces. I also said that I really wanted to make a lantern, and I did! I absolutely love it, even though it hasn’t even been fired yet. I cut out the sun design from Rapunzel on it and poked holes around the top. I think I want to use purple and orange glaze on it. I’m even more excited about the final result. I also said I wanted to improve my throwing skills, which I think I definitely have. I still have a long ways to go, however, I am having an easier time centering and I’ve enjoyed playing with shapes a little more this semester. I also learned the power of pulling slowly, something I keep having to remind myself to do.