Native American Coil Pots - Student Work

This beauty at the top was created by senior Nikki Shah.

One of my personal favorite assignments with my Ceramics I students are showing them how to construct a pueblo pot using a tool called a poki in place of a potter's wheel.  It's a very shallow clay pinch bowl that I pre-made for the kids (I have a set of 40 so they have a few choices in size).  After I made them I sawdust fired them for a very nice finish.  Each kid starts with this as their wheel head, puts a swallow pinch bowl inside and attaches coils and spins it as they build upward.  Next year I will try to remember to post the process.  I also have the students smooth out the coil lines on both the inside and outside of their pots.  Then they burnish them like crazy with smooth river rocks.  They also pre-plan their embellishment design so they know where to pierce their holes for later beading and such.  After bisque firing I sawdust their pieces, then the kids have a choice as to how they finish them with either a glue/water mixture to seal them or with metallic rubbing pigments.  Then they embellish for their final grade.  The results are quite lovely as you will see.

Below we have this gorgeous piece by junior Justyn Li. 

Love how senior Sandra Osuji turned her top lip over, and those feathers are the perfect adornment.  And clever junior Aditi Ramesh used leather and raffia for a super combination. 

Senior Lilith Huang went for a more subtle look with the metallic, leather and beads.  Stunning Lilith!  As always  :)  And then senior Kevin Luong got the most wonderful markings from the sawdust firing on the outside of his piece from the pine needles we put in for fuel.  I love the simple drawn line in the clay at the bottom, a brilliant design ploy, then using the metallic to emphasize it, and balancing the top with the beads. Notice those larger red/white beads?  I earned those when I was in Camp Fire Girls in the 7th grade.  They are red/white/blue and symbolized good citizenship.  I donated them so the kids would have more bead choices.  I love that Kevin used them in his pot. He has a part of me in his work :)

And lastly we have senior Kristen Palmer.  She also thought to make a simpler statement with her blue metallic rub, leather and beads.  Perfect!

I hope you all enjoyed seeing the results from this year as I have enjoyed sharing them with you.  To see more, search my blog and the last 2 years worth will come up.