unit 1 & 2 projects

Stamp project (unit 1):

Plan:

In making this stamp, I started with a small ball of wedged clay. I rolled it into a thick tube-like shape and then pressed one end into the table to create a flat circular base to put my stamp design on. Then I pressed the sides in along the edges and in the middle to create the stamp shape with the handle coming out from the top. I cut the handle so that it was a reasonable length and smoothed out the top. Once I had made the stamp shape, I rolled out 5 short pieces of clay and scored/slipped them onto my stamp. I smoothed out the edges and fired it, using no glaze.

Stamp project (unit 1):

Reflection:
For this particular piece, the molding of the stamp went well. It was not a particularly difficult method and easily created the shape I wanted. The scoring/slipping also went well, as all of the pieces stayed on after being fired.

While the molding of the stamp turned out how I envisioned it, next time I might consider not having a base stamp shape, as that does create a design with a circle around it. If I want a design without this added circle around it, then I could make the same design, but make the backing that holds the pieces together smaller so that only the pattern makes an indent, and not the circular shape of the stamp.

Plan:

In making this stamp, I started by shaping a piece of clay into a flat rectangle. I then use one of the small loop cutter tools to carve out a design onto the stamp base. Once my design was carved out, I smoothed it out with water and fired it. I did not use any glaze for this piece.

Reflection:

For this piece, the cutting out of the design worked extremely well. The small loop tool was very effective at cutting even lines in the stamp that were the right width.

The only thing I would do differently next time would be to roll out the clay and cut out a rectangle instead of shaping a flat rectangle, because that would be a much easier method.

Stamp project (unit 1):

Plan:

To make this stamp, I started with a small ball of wedged clay. I rolled it into a thick tube-like shape and then pressed one end into the table to create a flat circular base to put my stamp design on. Then I pressed the sides in along the edges and in the middle to create the stamp shape with the handle coming out from the top. I cut the handle so that it was a reasonable length and smoothed out the top. Once I had made the stamp shape, I used the first stamp that I had made with the starfish-like design to press into the surface of this new stamp, essentially creating a reverse of the original stamp. The original stamp was a negative stamp, and this new one is a positive stamp.

Reflection:
The molding of this stamp went well. Again, it was not a particularly difficult method and easily created the shape I wanted. It was also particularly easy to create the pattern because all I had to do was stamp my already-made pattern onto this new stamp.

The only thing I might have done differently is stamp the pattern onto the clay before I formed the stamp. When I stamped the pattern onto the face of the stamp, the edges sort of curved around the original stamp. It was not too difficult to fix, but in the future I would probably just stamp the pattern on before forming the stamp to avoid this.

Face sculpture (unit 1):

Plan:

To make this face, I started with a tennis-ball-sized lump of wedged clay. I rolled this into a ball and then dropped it onto the table to create a flat back. I then made indents 1/3 of the way down the face for the eyes. I rolled 2 evenly sized balls and placed them in the eye sockets. I then scored and slipped more clay around the eyes to form eyelids, shaping them so that it would look like the man was smiling. Then I scored and slipped on more pieces of clay to form the eyebrows, the forehead, the chin, the cheeks, the nose, and the mouth. After this, I used tools to make lines, specifically around the man's eyes, to give expression to the old man I was sculpting. Once I was finished with this, I hollowed out the backside and the piece without using any glazes.

Reflection:
For this piece, I think some of the smaller details, like the eyes, the eyebrows, and the creases/wrinkles in the face, worked well.

However, if I were to do something like this again, I would definitely make some of the features more defined. I would add more clay to the cheeks and add deeper grooves to really make it look like the man was smiling. I would add more clay on the chin and forehead to give the head a more realistic shape. I also think I would use different tools for making the wrinkles because the tools I used were too small and caused the face not to be as smooth as it could have been. I also think I would underglaze it white next time, so that the piece turns out a white color after being fired instead of the peachy color it ended up being.

Small underglazed piece (unit 1):

Plan:

To make this piece, I used a mold of a plate to shape my plate. I first wedged clay and rolled it out. Then, I shaped and cut it to fit onto the plastic plate mold. Then I left my plate in this mold while I painted a design onto it using underglaze. I first painted 3 layers of cone 5 white underglaze onto the plate as a background color. Then I started with the pattern. I had cut out a stencil at home that I brought to class specifically for this project. I used this stencil to trace the pattern I wanted onto the plate with a pencil, and then began painting the design over it. I used the cone 5 Dark Green underglaze. I painted 2 layers of this onto the plate. After the main front design was done, I painted 3 layers of white cone 5 underglaze on the back of the plate, taking it out of its mold, and then firing it. After it had been fired once, I used a cone 5 foodsafe glaze to coat the entire plate in three layers. Then my plate was midfired.

Reflection:
For this piece, my second design went well. My second pattern was quite simple, as it had larger shapes and not as complex shapes.

The original plan that I tried to do did not work well. I originally attempted to put a different pattern on the plate. I started by trying to trace an intricate pattern onto the plate from a pattern I had drawn onto a piece of paper. The problem was, the clay was still too wet when I was tracing, and the paper got too damp. This caused my pencil to poke through the paper in multiple spots, making small holes in the clay. The paper also stuck to the clay a lot, and did not fully peel of. In addition to this, I had not painted a white coat underneath the pattern before I drew it on, so when I put a white coat on after, it was not a smooth layer. I decided to completely paint over my design, filling in all of the holes with white underglaze after scraping off all of the paper. The method I did after this worked a lot better. In the future, I know not to race a pattern onto clay until it is leather hard.

Small animal sculpture (unit 2):

Plan:

To make this piece, I started by molding the shape of the owl with a fist-sized ball of clay. Once I had molded the general shape I wanted for the owl, I cut the owl in half horizontally with a wire clay cutter and used a loop tool to hollow both sides of the owl out. Then I smoothed out the insides with a little bit of water before scoring and slipping the two sides back together. After that, I cut a circle out of the top of the owl's head so that the owl could be a succulent planter. I also cut a small hole out of the bottom of the owl so that when I water it, the water will not be trapped inside. Once I had this general shape of the owl planter, I sculpted some of the finer details, including the indented area around the eyes, the beak, the eyes, and the shape of the wings. Then I underglazed it, using a mix of gray and medium green underglaze for the body and black for the eyes and beak. I did not glaze around the eyes or on the inside, as the clay I used naturally bisk-fires to the ideal color and texture for an owl planter.

Reflection:
For this piece, the construction method for making the planter went really well. The method of shaping it, then cutting it in half and hollowing it out, and then putting it back together really worked to build the right shape of the owl planter. It also made it a lot easier to make sure both sides of the owl were symmetrical, and the owl was generally the same thickness throughout the whole piece.

The only thing that did not go so well was a design on the front stomach of the owl. I was originally going to use clay to build a subtle feather pattern on the stomach of the owl. However, it was extremely hard to get the feathers in the right shape, and to get them to line up. It was also difficult to attach them to the owl, as they were very small to score and slip on. Overall, the owl turned out fine without the feather pattern, but in the future I might consider different ways to sculpt a feather pattern on the owl to add more detail or depth to the piece.

Practice pinch pot (unit 2):

Plan:

To make this pinch pot, I started with a tennis ball-sized piece of wedged clay. I then pressed my thumb into the center of it to make a hole. Then, I gently pinched the sides between my thumbs and fingers while turning to pot to widen and shape the walls. After that, I pressed the bottom onto the table to make it flat, and I tried to shape the bottom to make it the same width as the rest of the pot. I used the wire cutter to cut it in half and see how I did.

Reflection:

Overall, this went well. There were no holes or air bubbles in the pinch pot, and the sides were relatively the same width.

What I would work on next time is making the bottom the same width as the sides. The bottom of this practice piece was much too thick.

Pinch pot (unit 2):

Plan:

To make this piece, I started by using the traditional pinch pot method to mold the shape of the bowl. Once I had the general shape, I shaped the top to make a slight rim. Then, I mixed white underglaze with yellow underglaze and painted the whole outside of the pot this off-white color. I also painted the inside and rim of the pot with a dark green underglaze. After that, I used a mixture of gray and medium green underglaze to paint the stems and leaves of all of the flowers. Once all of the leaves and stems were painted on, I used various colors of underglazes to paint a variety of different types of flowers on the bowl. As a final detail, I painted think white lines in the flower leaves in order to add a little bit of depth to the painting. Once I had fully underglazed it, I fired the pot once, and then applied three coats of clear glaze before firing it again.

Reflection:
For this piece, the construction method went really well. The pinch pot was the right design that allowed me to create just the shape I was aiming for. Even the fingerprints that my hands made in the pot while I was forming to pinch pot worked well for me, as I wanted the surface of the pot to be bumpy anyways.

The major downfall of this piece was the amount of time it took. In hindsight, this piece took way too much time- time that I should have been spending completing other projects. This project taught me that I have to plan my time out carefully for each project in order to be able to finish all of them.

Double pinch pot (unit 2):

Plan:

I made this project with a double pinch pot method. This means I started by making two pinch pots of relatively the same size, and joining them together by scoring and slipping them together. Once my double pinch pot was made, I let it dry for a few days before beginning the process of transforming it into a stackable jar. To do this, I first cut the pinch pot into 3 separate sections. Then, for each section, I cut out half of the area around the top of the section, creating a ledge for the next section to sit on. Once I had done that I cut out circular bottoms for the top 2 layers of the pot from a slap of clay. I scored and slipped these circles onto the bottom of the section to create the divisions between the sections. Then I painted the entire jar with 3 layers of white underglaze and let that dry completely. Then, using a mixture of white and yellow underglaze, I painted the entire outside of the jar with 5 layers and began my sgraffito design. To make my sgraffito design, I waited until the yellow paint was dry, and then used a signing needle tool to scrape the yellow paint away, revealing the white underneath.

Reflection:
For this piece, the sgraffito design went really well. painting the multiple coats in order to be able to do this sgraffito design took a long time, but the design itself was extremely effective. The tools I used were able to scrape away the yellow paint, effectively revealing the white paint beneath.

There were a lot of things that happened during this project to learn from. The first being how to let something dry. I learned that when you are making something that needs to fit together (like something with a lid, or something stackable), you have to dry the pieces together. Because clay shrinks when it dries, or changes size. In order for the pieces of the project to still fit together, you need to leave all the pieces together when drying so that the shrink the same. I also learned that you have to let ceramic pieces dry slowly, otherwise they will crack.

Design-wise, in the future i would likely choose colors that contrast more in order to make the sgraffito pattern stand out more.

Mini masterpiece tile (unit 2):

Plan:

Reflection:

Historically inspired piece (unit 2):

Plan:

Reflection:

Choice piece (unit 2):

Plan:

Reflection: