Ceramics Project: Experimentation

 Last week I participated in the ceramics induction, where I learned different techniques to help me make the 3D outcomes for the cups for my Design Crafts project in term two. 

I experimented with pinch pottery to create smaller cups. I made a ball from the clay by slapping it into the palm of my hand on different sides of the clay, I did this until the ball was smooth. I then pressed my thumb into the middle of the ball and started pressing my thumb and index finger together while rotating the clay between my fingers. By doing this, I could create the shapes that are shown in the photo below. The room was quite warm, causing the clay to dry out quicker. The rims of the cups cracked and split, but I could repair them by simply smoothing my finger over them. I used spare pieces of clay to play around with textures while I was waiting for my slabs of clay to dry out more, I used different tools to try and mimic the ‘furry’ texture from one of my designs. I will be elaborating on the technique I have decided on using in my first process post.

Another technique I tried after my induction is slab pottery. This required me to take bigger pieces of clay and rolling them out with a rolling pin between two pieces of wood. I kept rolling in different directions to achieve the desired shape of the ‘slab’, in between I picked up the pieces to make certain that they would not stick to the surface. I then kept rolling in one direction until the clay was level with the two pieces of wood. After this, I used a kidney tool to smooth out the texture of the clay and prepare it for assembly. I cut one slab into a rectangle with a cutting tool, this would become my vessel. I rolled up the rectangle slab into a cylinder form and joined them together by cross hatching into either end with a cross hatching tool. I applied clay slip to both ends with a brush and then pressed them together. The slip dries quickly, so it is important not to take too long during this step. Once the ends would not budge anymore, I smoothed out the remaining openings with my fingers to make the surface smooth around the entire cylinder. Now that the cylinder was finished, I could use it to draw out the base. I used a cutting tool to make an outline of the bottom of the cylinder while not cutting it out yet, I only starting cutting the base out after I removed the cylinder to prevent myself from accidentally cutting into it. I used the cross hatching tool to cross hatch along the bottom of the cylinder and on the edges of the base to join them together using clay slip and a brush. Those are the basic steps of slab pottery, I could now start to add more detail.

Slab Pottery

Both of these techniques are extremely useful to my project as I can use them to create the shapes that I need to make the 3D outcomes of my designs without using a pottery wheel, which is a difficult skill to learn in such a short time.