PINCH AN INCH

PINCH POTS

CERAMICS I

clay, glazes & oxides

We are taking a peek at how the beginning clay students are doing today.

This is a real diverse group of kids,

some that I have worked with before in their 7th and 8th grade years,

but many that are new to me.

And some that are only taking the class to be able to graduate high school
 because they need a Fine Arts course credit.

These are the kids that are the most challenging,

and they are almost all boys which makes if even more of a predicament  LOL

But they are slowly coming round,

even beginning to enjoy the clay experience.

I'm hoping to hook them for life  :)

Let's start with Nathan Lam,

a junior.

I had Nathan in the 7th and 8th grade.

He is highly creative and can draw really well,

so of course all of that translates into the 3-D arena.

Love how he has turned his pinch pitcher into a crawling crab,

and glazed it beautifully as well.

And check out the great texture that newbie junior Anand Parthiban

 has paddled onto the sides of his snail mug.

Also note his impeccable craftsmanship.

Next is senior Archana Vancheswaran.

I worked for many years with Arch's sister,

Aparna,

who was quite gifted in the arts.

Come to find out her lil' sis is too.

Arch has both great design and craftsmanship skills.

Also note the texture you see thru the glaze

 and how it creates movement across the piece.

Here we have senior Francis Lee and junior Sarah Chang with these two lovely mugs above.

Both girls have dipped their pots in glaze,

then brushed oxides over top to bring emphasis to certain areas.

And Sarah has also used wax resist to aid in her design.

She brushed it on the leaves and twist so that no glaze would stick there when she dipped

into her turquoise glaze.

Pretty tricky,

huh?

Also new to me this year is senior Casey Yoon whom I'm really enjoying getting to know.

He brings deep focus skills to all his pieces, 

taking great pride in his craftsmanship.

Below we see a little bits of glass shards he has melted inside for a special treat.

Senior Jonathan Hsu is a returning art student.

This year he is in both my third year drawing/painting class as well as here in ceramics.

I really like that he is bringing in his 2-d skills into his sculptural face on the side of his mug.

In the center,

 junior Benjamin Barnetton has cleverly turned his handle into a dolphin.

And high energy senior Tarun Desai has expertly applied glaze to his leaf pinch bowl.

I like both the glazing and multiple handles on this next piece by junior Edward Malacon.

He's taken great care in his glazing 

which really highlights all the design work & effort he has put into this. 

And we end with junior Jessica Andres and senior Lily To.

Both are doing some lovely things with their glazing.

Jess has stained several oxides into the walls of her clay before applying transparent glaze

for a really cool look.

And Lily has done some overlapping of glazes along the inside edge 

giving the piece a lot of depth.

She has also brushed Rutile oxide over top her handles

which brings even more interest into her pot.

Pretty darn impressive all you beginners!!