STUDENT PROFILE - SARAH CHANG

THROWN BOWLS & PLATES

CERAMICS II

clay, glazes, potter's wheel & ceramic pencils

It was an absolute joy to work with senior Sarah Chang  again in the Intermediate clay class.

The first half of the year was spent handbuilding and the second half 

learning to throw on the potter's wheel.

Here we see Sarah in her 4th quarter where she is learning to throw bowls and plates,

and also how to trim a foot on their bottoms.

We see one of her bowls here that she threw with Porcelain clay.

Teaching anyone to throw on the potter's wheel is one of the most difficult learning curves there is.

However,

Sarah took to the wheel like a duck to water.

Amazingly she had no big struggle like most do.  

She just sat down and was able to  replicate every move I'd shown her.

It was quite remarkable.

I have another student this year who also was able to throw from day one,

junior Julia Ruiz.

Hopefully we will see her work before the end of the school year.

Ha ha

But at the rate I'm going it might take a couple more months.

Because this is a second level course,

surface design becomes even more important.

So above,

 Sarah was required to decorate her Porcelain bowl by using a ceramic pencil and draw a design

on top of her bisqueware,

then to dip it into a Transparent glaze.

Ceramic pencils are Metallic Oxides packed into a pencil form that can be sharpened.

Next on this plate she was required to overlap multiple glazes for a really cool effect.

I'm pretty sure she first dipped into our Cobalt Blue glaze then put one of our greens over top.

Love all the swirly marbleizing she achieved.

Almost looks like a crystaline glaze.

Here you can see the nice foot she trimed onto the backside of her plate.

Beautiful work Sarah, 

it was such a pleasure to work with you for 2 years in a  row.