Teapot Project

So, for my teapot I decided to make a cake teapot. I wasn’t really sure what to do for the teapot project because I was still focusing on my slab project, but when I thought about it I just got inspired on doing a cake. Another reason why I wanted to make a cake teapot is because that day when I was thinking of what to do, I was really hungry, so I just started making a cake. The first thing I did was cut out templates for my cake. I used cardboard and wanted to make my cake teapot big because I wanted to do something challenging. The reason to this is that I have never made anything bigger than 5 inches, so my goal was to make a foot tall teapot. After I finished making the templates, I started rolling out slabs. I used my templates as the guide of how I wanted my cake to look like. I had to dry the slabs first, so I can start slipping and scoring the edges together. So once I formed the sides of my cake I took another template and measured it for my foundation. After that, I cut a hole on top of the cake, this will be my lid. I took it off and set it aside because I was going to decorate the lid with strawberry and flowers. Then, I took the knife and made a small opening on the tip of the cake, that’s where the tea will come out. Then to finish it off, I took two coils and braided it, so I can use it as the handle for everything.

                The way I design my cake was I took the excess slab and used it as the frosting at the sides. Unfortunately, one side of the slabs broke. I think I didn’t slip and score enough or there were still air pockets left inside the clay. When I saw it fired, I felt so sad because it was my first time experiencing something being broken. But overall, it looked like a cake, but the only downside about it is that it’s broken.

                When I was glazing my cake, I asked if I could glue the broken part back after it has been glaze. Thankfully, I was able to put the broken pieces back to place, but you can really see the cracks. The glaze technique, I used was brushing it with three coats because I was afraid I might break while glazing it, because I think (my opinion) it was in a fragile state. The glaze turned out really nice, except for the white, even though I coated it three times.

                Overall, I am glad that the cake was finish. I really like the outcome of it, but i am still bumped that it broke. I really like making this project, even though it took quite a while to make it.

Slab Construction

So, for my slab construction I wanted to make something floral. I decided to make a flower vase for my slab construction because I know that it will challenge me to do something difficult. The first thing I did to make the flower vase is that I had to make a template for the size of the petal I will be using. I took a board and started cutting out shapes of petals. Once I finish making a template I started using the slab roller to make slabs. I made about 9 petals to form my flower. After cutting out the 9 pieces of petals, I started to slip and score three petals first. I started to form three petals first because that will be the base of the flower. After I finish slipping and scoring the three petals altogether I made the edges of the three petals bent so it’ll look more natural. After finishing with the three petals I started to put the other three petals to form the second layer of the flower. This part was the difficult part because every time I slip and scored the pieces together sometimes they fall off, so I had to make sure I put enough slip for it to stick. After that I took the last three petals and formed the last layer of the flower vase. I also bended the other petals so it can look more like a flower. After bending the edges I had to make the base/bottom of the flower vase. I took my leftover slab from the petals and used the slab roller again. It gave me slab and I used that as my bottom base of my flower vase. I also wanted my vase to have a foot, so I took a small coil and formed it in the bottom of the vase.

            For the design for the flower vase I only use the needle tool’s cover. I used that to make lines inside the petals. I wanted to make it look like a real flower, so I actually put in a line texture like real flowers have. After that, I took a brush and started brushing up the excess clay from the flower vase.

            I really liked how my flower vase turned out. I was even impressed that I was able to manage to pull it off. I took my time and attention to make it look like a real flower. I believe that I gave it justice because it really looked like a flower.

The Glaze technique i used was brushing the glaze three times. I wanted it to look like a real flower so i glazed it yellow, pink, and maroon. It turned out to be one of my best pottery design.

Coil Construction

Well for my coil construction I made a combination technique using coils and slab. The first thing I did was I formed the plate using a slab. I took a handful of clay and started wedging it and then put it in the slab roller. After making a slab I looked for a circular object so I can use it to form my plate.  After forming my plate i put aside and placed it in a plastic bowl so my plate can form a higher edge. I set it out for two days so it can harden a little bit. After the clay got leather-hard I went and started to use a wooden knife to make my plate bigger because the plate was still too small. Next, I placed tissue under my plate because I was going to wet a little bit and I didn’t want my plate to get stuck on the bowl. Then after forming the plate using slabs I used coils to make decorations.

                So, the first thing I did was I got a lot of clay and started wedging it. After finishing I went to the clay extruder and started making clay. It gave me a little amount of coils, but it was okay because I was going to make it into a smaller coil. Once I got all my coils, I started to wet and it and started to make the coil thinner. After making it thinner I started cutting the coils about a 2 inch and made at least 8-9 pieces of small coils. I am going to use this coils at the edge of my plate, so it can have more depth into it as well as height. Then, I started to slip and score all the edges of the coils and the plates edges. This was the tricky part because it was so hard for the coils to stick to the plate. But I kept putting a lot of slip so it won’t come off from the plate. My plate was still missing something because it still looked plain so, I decided to use my leftover coils and started to make a spiral decoration out of them. After making the spiral decoration I started carving the inside of the plate. By carving the plate I can put my spiral decoration on it. I had to slip and score the spiral decorations unto the plate. I carve the surface of the plate because I didn’t want the coil spiral decoration to be uneven with the plate’s surface. I only put three spiral decorations in the plate because putting more will look ugly and I still wanted to show a smooth surface. I liked how my coil construction turned out. The hardest thing that I hate about the coil construction is actually making the coils because it takes a lot of time.

The glaze technique i used was i dip the plate in the mustard glaze. As a result of trying to get the glaze from the bottom of the plate, i unfortunately broke one  of the tip of the plate.

Double Pinch Pot

My double pinch pot is quite different from everyone else. I wanted to make something that doesn’t resemble people’s double pinch pot. So, for my double pinch pot I made a football piggy bank. Actually, one of my friends asked me if I could make her something from clay and I said I would make her a football. The first thing I did was I took two pieces of clay, that size of my hand. I started wedging it and forming a ball. Once I finished making two balls, I checked if it was proportionate with one another because those are the two clays that I will be pinching. I took one of the balls of clay and starting pinching it making it into bowl shaped. After I was done with the first one I took the second and started pinching it to make a bowl. I took a longer time forming the second one because I wanted to be sure it will be the right size as the first one. Soon after, I put slip on both of the bowls and put them together. I started to smooth them up making a double pinch pot. At first, it looked like a betel nut, but then when I started to form it again it started to look like a football. Once I finish smoothing out the slip, I cut a rectangle in the middle of the football. I used the knife to cut it, so it can be the handle as well as, I can smooth out the slip from the inside of the football. After I cut up the part of the football, I made another incision to make the coin slot. Now that I made the bowls look like a football, the next thing I did was the decorations and details that will make it more football-like.

                The first thing I did to make it look more like a football is that I took a slab and cut out three tiny rectangular shapes as the handle of the football. I slipped and scored it unto the rectangle part I cut-off from the football. I started using the base of the needle tool as the surface because it looks like the surface of a football. I wanted to make the football more realistic by making the surface look like a real football. It took a lot of time to decorate the surface of the football because I had to roll the needle tool over and over again. Once I finish I put two straight lines at each corner of the football. I chose to make a football as my double pinch because I wanted to be original. I didn’t want to make what the other students were making. Although, they looked nice I wanted to have my own personality in my own artwork.

 The glaze technique I used was brushing it three times. I used the glaze color oatmeal brown because it was the only brown glaze i found and i really wanted it too look like a football.

Pinch Pot

                First of all, I took a handful of clay and started playing with it. By doing this I remove the air bubble that is stuck in the clay. This type of playing with the clay is called wedging. After I finished wedging the clay, I started forming my clay into a ball. I made it into a ball because it will be easier in making my pinch pot. Once I made the ball of clay, I started to smooth out the wrinkle parts of the clay because this is essential part when making the pinch pot. You don’t want your side of the pot to look all wrinkled. After smoothing out the ball of clay, I started forming my pinch pot. The first thing I did was I place one of my hands unto the bottom of the ball of clay and my other hand; I used my thumb to open up the ball of clay. Then, I started pinching the bottom of the hole until the top portion of the clay. This will give my clay the height and width of my bowl. After I finished pinching my clay it looked like a bowl. I started to make the foot for the bottom of my bowl. From the bottom of the bowl I started to pinch it up, so it looked like there is foot. Then I carved it using a carving tool to make the foot proportionate with each other. Then I smoothed the tip of the bowl because I didn’t want it to have a design because I am planning on using that to eat.

                Once I’ve finish my bowl, I started to decorate it. I decorated my bowl using the needle tool and started drawing on the surface of the bowl. My design was like several stems with leaves on them. I was inspired to make this decoration because I was always fascinated by how plants look like and how they look so beautiful. I drew all over my bowl and once I was done, I had to set it aside to dry a little bit. Once the bowl dried or went through the stage leather hard, I went and took a brush and started brushing unto the place I drew my stems and leaves. By doing this I was able to remove those tiny lumps of clay that were stuck at the edge of the drawing. The last thing I did was I took the metal thing and started burnishing my bowl, making it look as if it was shiny.

               The glaze technique i used was brushing it three times and using a pen to clean the parts of the design. I did this so the design can pop out more and won't have any glaze.