Working with Tabitha this quarter has been the big fun, she has helped me in pottery and mostly just been a person I can work with and have fun with in the studio. This quarter Tabitha and I have done partner throwing! This is where Tabitha sits on one side of the wheel and I on the other and we make a larger piece together. I appreciate the time that Tabitha has put into our pottery time.
As a Potter.
On the more physical side of things the projects that I had going on were the alpine mugs, thin necked vases, a dish set, and marbled clay. The Alpine mugs were blown clay mugs with a band of wood grain, a carving of an alpine skier, the words “U32 ALPINE TEAM”, and the first name and last initial carved onto the outside. The inside was glazed tourmaline and the outside was left raw.
Dish SetThe dish set is a collaboration with Tabitha, we are making 8 plates, 8 bowls, 8 mugs, a pitcher, a teapot, a salad bowl, and possibly a crockpot. This dish is for someone who could possibly read this narrative so I will not say who.
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Thin-necked VaseThe thin necked vases were the smallest of the projects. My goal with this project was to create something that was technically challenging in pottery because everything thus far besides throwing large pieces of clay had been easy. My first attempt to making this was not as thin of a vase as I would have hoped, but the second time I was able to get what I wanted out of the clay.
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Studio Practice
As I mentioned I have accomplished a lot in pottery and probably the most out of my studies. I will talk about the development of my studio care. The idea of a caring for one’s studio first caught my attention while I was on a tour of the Maine College of Art this last weekend. The students at college were mentioning how great it was the the college had studio space that they could start their studio practice in. I wondered what this was and could only relate it to how I treat the pottery studio. Most days this quarter the last people in the studio are Tabitha and I, we stayed late (when we aren't supposed to) to use the wheels and add finishing details to our pots or mugs. When we stay late we always make sure that we clean up our stations, the tables, and the sinks. We make sure that we mop the floor if we made a huge mess and check for anything that was lying around. I have been developing this for the entirety of my study and I thought that it was worth mentioning.
This quarter I have also had the pleasure of working with my own BROWN clay which meant that I had to recycle my own clay. This was another part of the pottery process that I hadn't dealt with until this quarter, in the past I was more focused on the making of the pottery, the side more explicitly focused in art. Then with the recycling of clay I am able to see more of the whole process of making ceramics, which is also an artform in itself. Recycling the clay consists of collecting extra clay and placing it in water to make slip, then with the slip you form these goopy doughnut shapes. When the goopy doughnut shapes are dry enough to use you ramshead the clay and use it, but if it is too dry to use you have to wait till the clay is bone-dry to start the process over again. These parts of pottery were helpful to have the full experience of making pottery. |
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