Coil Pot Figurative Sculptures - Student Work

I've really been looking forward to sharing these 3 pieces by seniors Rita, Eddie and Stella.  All three worked so hard on them and took the assignment very seriously.  They were to choose between a nude male or female torso and build it with coils.  They had to build to a height of at least 18".  Both Eddie and Stella chose males and Rita chose a female form.

I was able to get pix along the way for all three of the kids so here we go.  

Rita Labib decided she wanted a bit of the upper thighs to show so she began with two circle shapes to build upon.  You can see below where she bridged the gap between the two legs.  

She really wanted a voluptuous form so she exaggerated the backside.  You can see the size of the coils she built with and how she chose to smooth both the inside and outside so no coils showed.

And then disaster struck.  One night someone came into my room and needed to move the sculpture for whatever reason, and broke thru the whole front section.  When we got back to school the next day, Rita was devastated and wanting to quit work on the piece.  I told her "Oh no, you are going to figure out a way to make this thing work, and it's going to be even better then your original idea because it's forcing you out of the box.  So her was her solution.  She left the ragged hole in the lower abdomen area, built another bridge and continued on her way up the piece. Loved her critical thinking on holding up that bridge.  :)  That's my girl!

As she builds, the piece just keeps getting bigger and better, until I'm beginning to get nervous about how we are going to get it into my top-loading kiln.  

Here is the bone-dry form getting wheeled into the kiln room.

Then we draped it with towels to protect it from the rope we put around it. 

Rita and Eddie lifted the piece up and I lowered it into the kiln. 

Rita named it "The Butterfly Effect", and has plans to have paper butterflies flying out of the gap and top of piece.

This is the finish that Rita put on the final piece.  She stained it with Red Iron Oxide on the outside and glazed it with Chili on the inside.  she didn't like how it looked when it came out of the glaze fire so she painted an ochre acrylic wash over the outside then lightly sanded it for a very interesting effect.

(sorry Rita for this badly angled photo)

(this angle is better below)

Next we have Stella Park.  She's using our Artic White clay body while Rita used our red called Cafe' Cinco.  Stella, you look you you are ready for a snow storm  :).   

Here is a proud young one with her finished piece.  I'm loving how she ripped the edges of neck and shoulders.

And here is her finished work below, on display at Senior Awards Banquet Night. She glazed the inside and out with our white glaze and then brushed and dripped cobalt carbonate oxide over top the white glaze for a fantastic finish!  

And lastly we have Eddie Ponce.  He chose to do a bit more then any of my previous students with the anatomy of the male torso.  He worked harder on this piece then his other projects, doing a lot of research to make it as realistic as possible.   

The finished result was stunning.  He chose to finish it with a semi-gloss black spray paint, and he built his own mounting block from wood pieces.  These he painted as well, then stacked and glued them together.  

Rita, Eddie and Stella, you three have made this a memorable year in clay, and I will never forget you guys.  Thank you for your effort all year long.