Tea pot

My idea for my tea pot was initially a bee hive with a common round handle on. But I wanted it to be more interesting than just a bee hive, so I decided to make my spout a bee which looked like it was flying out of the hive, and my handle a tree branch. 

First, I started out with 4 different little parts. I rolled out a big slap, cut out a circle shape then mold it into a bowl shaped mold to make the top round part of the hive. I then used the rest part of the slap and make a cylinder which its diameter must match with diameter of the mold. The third parts was the bee spout and last is the tree branch handle. 

To accentuate the texture of the beehive. I used the tiny extruder and extruded tiny little coils then "slip and score" them on. It took forever! But I love it. I also decorated on two little bees on the sides and a flower on top.

Finally, I low fired it with some CTL's, Slips and Yellow and Brown LG's.
And it functions as great as it looks.

Coil Pot

I started out with a kite shaped base cut out from slap. Then built up with coils in variety shapes (triangles, rainbow, braid, ...). These are all hand-built coils.  

 

I then, instead of dunking the whole pot in high fire glazes, I brushed them on. Brushing on glazes was a little tedious to feel in all the tiny gaps but it will accentuate the texture better. I chose Tenmoku, Albany Slip Brown and the Blue. 

But, eventually, the blue did not really work out. That's why there's some green white-ish spots but it's look pretty good to me. And I am happy how it turned out to be. 

Keith Carter - Artist In Residence

Keith's mop bucket

Keith Carter who is an artist in residence. He is currently working at Clay on Steele studio in Algoma and at the Barnsite Gallery in Kewaunee. We are honored to have him in our class. He shows and teaches us many thing outside of the box which we might not have chance to discover them on our own.

After showing us new and cool techniques working with clay, he assigned us the "Rustic Vessels" topic. Taking the idea of a vintage object, we have to recreate that object out of clay and then add on another found object which is not clay into the clay part with a purpose.

I am really excited with this topic because it's really different from what we get to do in class. Normally, we only get to make pots, cups but this time we get to incorporate a non-clay object into our clay piece. I think it's really fun to do.  And since we have to choose a vintage object, I choose to recreate a rotary phone which no so many people using it nowadays. People now have their "smartphones" with them almost 24hours per 7, forgetting the rotary phones or dial phones which played an important role back in the day. The found object I'm going to add on is a wire connecting the base to the hand set. I wrap the wire around a pencil to create its shape like a spring.

I used super glue to connect the parts together.

Keith is an inspiring artist. He gives us new ideas,  helps us in making the objects. He is funny and friendly. Not only he gives us great ideas but also makes some awesome pots, sculptures and vessels. They are all great. I really like them. And I would love to have him in our class again.

Textured container

I first formed a cylinder with a mold. Then slip and score to connect the clay together. I used some of the texture square and also hand decorate to create the decoration on the container.

 The glaze that I used for my textured container body was Albany Slip Brown first layer and another Albany Slip brown layer for the half top container. 

I was thinking about making something fun for my container lid so I made a short braid to go on top of the extruded parts. The glaze for my lid was double layer of Smokey Merlot. 

Pinch Pots

 Organic - High fired

I turned my pinch pot into a slanted pot with a few flower pedal on top.

Bellied - Low fired

This is my favorite out of three. I like the color it turned out to be as well as its shape. It was pretty symmetrical. I used some low fired glaze to decorate my pot and then i coated with a clear glaze to my pot. 

Footed - Raku fired

I added a little foot a shape of a cross. I like the green on this pot; however the burned smells really bad. 

Ceramics 1 Blog Test

Can visual art of clay be a self expression?

Yes, clay can definitely a self expression. Just like drawing a 2D picture, instead of sketching out what we are going to draw, we shape clay into what we want it to form. And instead coloring, we glaze. A person can tell a story with clay without saying a word. The way we glaze the clay could tell what emotions we are having. Clay allows us to express our feelings. When we touch it, feel it and shape it; we can easily forget our worries or we can even release our anger as we pinch, squeeze, throw and press clay.