LEARNING THE ROPES

COIL TRIVETS

CERAMICS I

clay, glazes, oxides, glass shards

Before I have my students build a full on 3-d Coil Pot,

I have them first learn to roll coils and try them in an Inlay assignment.

Inlay is a beautiful way to bring Surface Design into the lid of a Slab or Lump Box.

I've even had kids build it into a side wall for gorgeous results.

To Inlay means to cut away and replace.

So what senior Augustine Lee did above in his sweet home was to roll out a slab of clay,

cut away his outside design format (his house shape),

then to decide where to bring in his inlay design.

He chose two separate places,

the roof attic and the lower floor.

He cut and pierced out those two spots, 

removed the clay,

and replaced with coils,

 a slab carved out shape to later fill with glass shards in the second firing,

 and rolled balls.

He also did a really nice finish with his oxides and glazes.

The kids were also required to incorporate a repetitive stamped design into the outside border area.

You can really see above right where senior Christian Balbido carved away parts of his middle triangle so that he was able to melt glass shards into it at a later date. 

Senior Shreya Gupta (above left) asked if she could draw in her repetitive design 

instead of stamping it.

Of course.

I like to be flexible with new ideas for old requirements.

That's how and why I keep changing up assignments to keep them fresh.

Thank you Shreya!

Superstar last and this year,

junior now senior,

Dustine Ansiboy,

 created one of the most intricate and exciting designs in the class.

I also really liked how junior Liam Abalos

 finished off his piece with black glaze and milky blue glass with the little white dots in the border.

Really striking.

Another favorite was this one by senior Ashley Scott.

I admired her sense of design all year with many of her works being my favorites.

Check out the cool and various stamps she used in her borders,

and how she thought to repeat some of them inside her Inlay.

That creates Visual Flow.

 The way she finished it with the staining of the various Oxides is also quite appealing.

And the melted glass for her windows,

brilliant!

EASING INTO IT

COIL TRIVETS

CERAMICS I

clay, glazes, oxides, glass shards & alphabet macaroni

This assignment is a prelude to working with slabs and coils.

But instead of doing it 3 dimensionally right off the bat, 

we combine the techniques and do it 2 dimensionally first.

These originally were made to be placed under hot cooking pots on the kitchen table,

but they turn out too beautifully,

 so here at Whitney we display them as wall art.

We start with this playful piece by senior Marjorie Balaoro.

Besides making a delightful piece,

I like how she spent a lot of time painting on her glazes to make it colorful.

This is an inlay technique where they roll out a slab of clay,

and cut out everything except an outside frame.

Then they inlay coils and slab pieces in various designs to fill up the frame.

After all the negative spaces are filled ,

the entire piece is scored and smoothed from the backside,

then flipped to the front.

Areas are chosen from the small slab pieces to carve away 

so that glass shards can be melted into those spaces after bisque firing.

And this year we added a new element,

text using alphabet macaroni.

The only problem was I went to several grocery stores and couldn't find the macaroni.

Finally found a huge selection at great prices on Amazon.com

And it burned/denigrated out really well as you can see,

leaving great shaped letters with no stamping marks around them like we usually get.

The one above was made by junior Ylia Madayag.

Check out her impeccable craftsmanship, 

just like her older sis Kline,

who graduated last year.

Innate art talent runs in their blood.

Here we have this fun hot air balloon by senior Lauren Kennedy.

She critically thought out her glazing.

She used both Red Iron & Cobalt Oxides to stain entire piece with,

then dipped in out transparent Blue-Green glaze.

And the final touch,

 melting her glass shards in a blue color to work with the staining of the Cobalt.

Well done Lauren.  

And our last one was done by junior Vincent Nguyen .

I love how he used various colors of glass shards

 so that the color gradually moves from greens to blues across entire piece.

And the contrast with the white glaze makes this a bold piece.

Bravo young man!

A COLLABORATION

Rarely do any of my demonstration pieces get finished,

in fact if you were to go into my home studio,

my husband had to build me a huge entire wall shelf to stack all my UFO's on.

So it's very satisfying to see one of my works come to fruition,

even if it wasn't finished by me.

This is the Coil Trivet assignment that I demoed a few years back.

And of course I never got around to finishing it.

So this year one of my seniors who had been out ill,

Christine Caballes,

 who missed out making the clay mask project,

needed something to glaze while the other kids were glazing their masks.

I looked into my cabinet of unfinished clay pieces and gave her this trivet to work on.

She made it way more beautiful then I would have ever taken the time to do.

First she stained it with Red Iron Oxide, 

then put several shades of green and blue glass shards into the carved recess area.

When it came out of the kiln she glued on those lovely stones

(I think they are Tiger's Eyes)

and wella,

a collaboration that makes me very happy and gave her a perfect glaze grade.

Both of us loved how it turned out so I made sure she knew it was hers to take home. 

Prelude to Coil Pots

COIL TRIVETS

CERAMICS I

clay, glazes, oxides, melted glass shards

Coil making is a fairly difficult technique to master,

 so rather then jumping right into Coil Pots, 

I have the kids make Coil Trivets first.

They use a much smaller coil length which is easier to master.

This is an inlay technique as well.

The students pierce or cut out a window,

then replace with other things.

Above we have the work of junior Klyne Madayag

 who is establishing quite a name for herself because of her beautiful craftsmanship.

The students are required to replace their window with coils, 

small slab pieces, 

and small balls of clay.

I also require a certain amount of surface design,

thus the stamped edges on both pieces above.

Into the small slab piece they are to carve a simple shape for later melting glass shards into.

I also require a certain amount of surface design,

thus the stamped edges on both pieces above.

The two beauties above were created by junior Christine Kim.

I usually always give my students choices in how they want to glaze their work.

Many of the kids in this assignment stained their pieces with oxides first,

then some also put glaze over top the stain like senior Nikita Govind above.

She used her skull stamp to melt her glass shards into.

Below junior Christina Hur stained her entire piece with cobalt carbonate

 then dipped it into our transparent glaze.

She topped that off with blue glass shards for a lovely monochromatic color scheme.

More Clay Please from My Seniors

COIL TIVETS

CERAMICS I

clay, glaze, glass shards

Recently I've had a few requests for more clay projects from Ceramics teachers across the U.S. 

So here you go, Coil Trivets

I do this assignment as a prelude to Coil Pots so the kids get the hang of rolling out coils in clay.

I also have them carve out an area to learn to melt glass shards in during the glaze firing. 

The students did a really nice job of critically thinking thru their glaze finishing as yo will see.

This first cutie was done by Megan Yeu.  Yeap, she's also the youngster that painted her self-portrait in yesterday's post. 

 Jocelyn Kim consistently brings us well thought out designs with beautiful craftsmanship in both the construction and the glazing processes.

I really like Anne Allan's sun motif, a great subject to work with.

Fishes where very popular this year with our seniors.  This one was made by Norris Khoo

The this last sweet piece was created by Minette Tsang.

Sadly, these very talented seniors won't be back next year, but I hope all of you keep ceramics in your life.

More Coil Inlay Trivets - Student Work

For some reason these 4 pieces didn't get included in the Coil Inlay Trivet post from last week.  So let me show off a few more great pieces.

I'll start with senior Brendon Lim about who based his design on a Harry Potter book.  And below his we have the work of senior Mehar Maju.  Mehar asked if she could paint the bisqueware with acrylics instead of putting it thru the glazing process.  Sure, so that's why her piece is so much more vibrant and not as earthy as the others.  

Next we have senior Lilith Huang's lovely colbalt stained butterfly.  And I'm so sad to admit I can't remember who did the last piece.  My best guess would be senior Sandra Osuji.  I'll let you know for sure on Monday  :)  

Coil Trivets - Student Work

As a prelude to building coil pots, I have the Ceramics I kids do an assignment I call Clay Trivets.  This way they get the hang of rolling out well formed coils before the big assignment.  This is a really fun project for the students.  

First they cut out the outside format of their shape from a rolled slab.  Then they cut out an interior piece that either echos the exterior or they change up the design entirely.  With the interior piece that they cut out, they begin to roll their coils, make their balls and shapes and insert the clay back into the interior hole.  Keep in mind I have them do this from the backside.  Then when every space is filled up (remember they are on the back side) they score thru all the pieces and smooth everything over until you see only a blank back side.   The funniest part is turning them over to reveal the design on the front side.  On the front they add repetitious stamping and carve out areas to melt glass into.

These first two are the work of juniors Carol Oh and Shamara Mustafa.  And below is the creation of junior Justyn Li.  Well done all of you!

Coil Inlay Trivets - Student Work

Before I have my Ceramics I students make a large Coil Pot I have them ease into it slowly with a Coil Inlay Trivet first to get the hang of rolling out those pesky coils.  They also get their first real lesson in carving in this piece so they will be able to inlay glass shards to melt during the glaze firing.  This assignment is really fun and you usually end up with some very nice work.

Senior Priya Shah's sun motif is a great example of what you can achieve with this technique.  And senior Opal Patel is right there with her in the fish below. 

This year I required them to bring in some textural elements around the format edging.  That element really makes the piece pop above, done by senior Lorena Morales.

Below is senior Kelsey Chang's extra credit piece that she made after she was done with this assignment.  She thought to bring in piercing with the coil inlay.  Oh, oh, oh, what a great idea for next year Kelsey, thanks!

Coil Inlay Trivets - Alum Work

Today is a clay day.  This work was done last school year by alum Freddy Perez but it wasn't finished firing till the beginning of this school year (long story)  LOL  Anyways, it was the most remarkable coil inlay that was produced last year and I want my Ceramics I kids to see it tonight since this is their current assignment.  Notice students the hole at the top so it can be hung n the wall.  Notice the center slab shape and how he carved it out to melt glass shards inside.  Notice all the other carved out areas as well.  A great piece Freddy. Miss you, stop by sometime so we can catch up.

Coil Trivets - Student Art

Forgot to get these posted earlier in the year. This is a fun assignment for the clay kids as we move into coil pots. I use this as an intro assignment so the students get used to rolling coils. All the coils, slab shapes and balls are inlayed into a rolled out slab frame. From left to right are seniors Frank Chang, Jessica Song and Jessica Su.