Teen Ceramics Weeks 2 & 3

This week students finished their initial slab-building projects and continued to battle the clay on the wheel. Spinning fast and furious, everyone managed to gain a lot of confidence with the basic centering an coning techniques. Then on to opening up the clay and creating a basic cylinder or bowl.

Throwing is more difficult than it appears. There are many subtle movements of the hands that must be carefully synchronized together or the piece can quickly become unbalanced and turn into a twisted piece of abstract art. Beginners often require a great deal of focus to carefully pay attention in order to keep the hands working together at the correct wheel position. Forget one step - oops abstract art! Become distracted and look away from your work for a second - oops abstract art!

The students did persevere despite the complexity involved and only after two wheel sessions, some were able to turn out a small cup or a vase. Some of these pieces were covered with an iron-rich slip and then a pattern carved in on top.

By the end of session 3, work which was ready for glazing was glazed and placed in the 3/28/10 reduction kiln.



This piece on the left is glazed and ready for the reduciton kiln. The glaze is Blue-Black, and old Val Cushing classic glaze. This glaze may become a matte turquoise or a matte dark brown-black, depending upon the thickness of the glaze application and how much carbon-trapping occurs during the firing.