WHAT'S WRAPPED AROUND YOUR TREE?

SLAB WRAPS

CERAMICS I

clay, glazes & oxides

I use this whimsical assignment as a performance quiz.

I do a demonstration and then the next day the students build their wraps.

Only one day to do it so the pressure to perform is on.

I feel this is good for the kids every once in  while.

This way they don't waste days on end "thinking" about their design.

They just have to go for it.

The technique involves thumping and dragging their clay to stretch out a thin textural slab.

Then folding it over top of itself and scoring it together with a decorative seam.

It's a vase form so a bottom also has to be scored on.

Because the kids are working so quickly these vases take on a life of their own.

They are not perfectly straight,

they may be sagging a bit, perhaps some rips along the edges, 

it's all good!

This year the kids really were looking at them as tree forms and played up that idea as you will see.

Above I showed two shots of senior Jonathan Hsu's wrap in the greenware stage

 so you could really see the facial details he put into his piece.

Below is how he finished it off.

Very clever of him to use two different oxides to stain half/half with.

This next powerful piece is the work of junior Annie Oh.

It feels so very expressive to me,

and I love how she glazed it with cobalt accents.

We are really seeing how the kids played these as trees here.

Love all the detail in both.

I'm sorry I can't remember the name of the student who created the greenware piece upper right.

Please leave a comment kiddos if you recognize it!

Above left and below left we see senior Casey Yoon's picturesque scene complete with picket fence.

Again,

 I wanted you to see the greenware piece because sometimes you lose the details in the glazing.

The piece on the right of Casey's below was done by junior Edward Malacon.