Don't be Afraid to Mess It Up

ALTERED THROWN FORMS

CERAMICS II

clay, glazes, oxides

My Ceramics II kids all learn how to throw on the potter's wheel in their 2nd semester with me.

They start off with cylinders then move on to vases forms and mugs.

As they learn I encourage them to try and alter their pieces by stamping, cutting, piercing, poking, paddling, the list is long.

At first they resist, but by the 4th quarter they start experimenting a bit.

So as I demonstrate I always make sure I alter every piece I make.

In my demonstration above I stamped opposite sides with a tribal button I found as well as pushed out the other two sides with my finger.

To finish I stained it with rutile oxide then transparent glaze over top.

The succulents are from my garden that I propagate.

This piece was one of my gifts to alumni Alyssa Olea for her hard work throughout the year as my Assistant. 

The rest of the pieces were made by my students.

I love how senior Tahnee Thantrong messed with her mug to fold the clay around the rim as well a leaning it to the right.

These small changes makes the piece so much more interesting to the eye.

This next one above was also made by Tahnee and it's so much fun, not only in the altering but in the glazing as well.

The last two below belong to senior Shamara Mustafa.

I believe that when she was trimming the bottom, a piece of the rim chipped off so she chipped more pieces off all the way around to save and balance the work.

To finish she sponged on cobalt blue carbonate then dipped into our blue-green glaze which has transparent qualities.

What a pretty little piece Shamara!

In this piece Shamara simply pinched in the rim on opposite sides to alter then accented it with her glazing.

Lovely!