A Little Bit of Whimsy

WHIMSICAL TEAPOTS WITH ATTITUDE

CERAMICS I

clay and glaze

This is only the second time I've tried this assignment with my beginning clay students because it is a bit more difficult, but I felt this group of kids were strong enough for the challenge.

They really understood what I was after and produced many beautiful works. 

This top piece was one of my favorites by senior Saarika Bhakta.  

It sort of reminded me of a flying fish form.  

And what a beautiful glaze finish.

Next we have senior Lacey Thach.  

Notice how the whole piece seems to be leaning back in a relaxed way.

And check out those lovely coil handles.

Senior Anne Allan was inspired by the teapot in Beauty and the Beast.

She took great pains in glazing the small details by using ceramic watercolor pigments before dipping the whole thing in transparent.

This quirky one belongs to junior Nicholas Tudor.

I really like how he overlapped the black and tan glazes thru the middle and then thought to put white dots on the top.  

Very cool piece Nick.

This sweet baby was made by junior Sameera Ahmad.

Great visual flow between the handles with the twisted coils.

Are you wondering if these pieces function?

Most of them do, that was part of their glaze grade.

I had them put water in and pour for me.  

I also checked to make sure they didn't drip.

This next beauty was done by Minette Tsang.

She completely captured the essence of this assignment.

Junior Cindy Ryoo constructed hers with overlapping slab layers which gives the eye lots of wonderful surface texture.  

And then by overlapping the glazes brings richness to those textures. 

This adorable one with it's nose up in the air was created by junior Ju Eun Lee.

The kids were required to pour and overlap their glazes, and you can see how much surface interest this simple technique brings to the pot. 

Our final one was crafted by junior Yasmeen Pardo.  

It's so sweet, looks like it's going to melt.

Fantastic job all of you!!

And thank you for taking each assignment seriously and giving me all your effort.

You make teaching a pleasure.

Esperanza High School Ceramics - Part Two

Kevin Kowalski has a great clay program going on at Esperanza High, especially for a newbie.  I think this is only his 3rd of 4th year there.

These are the pinch techniques Mr Kowalski employs in his classroom, all made by my doll-face, Danielle.  A pinch bowl turned into a mug with repetitive design round the top lip (a little hard to see because of the thick glaze)

Two pinch closed forms, the sweet little armadillo above, and the lovely giraffe below.  The neck is a hollow  pinch tube and the legs are solid coils all scored and slipped on.  Can't quite remember where Dan put the hole for the air to escape so it won't blow up in the kiln.

Work inspired from another clay artist, below.  Dani used ceramic pencils to draw her design then transparent glaze over top these pinch teacups.  She may even have painted porcelain slip over top her cups while they were still plastic because you can see how it's chipping away a bit before she applied her glaze.

Loved her whimsical teapot she built using a pinch technique.  I am especially impressed with her sense of surface design around the shoulder and bottom rim area.

There is one more piece that I forgot to photograph, and it's one of my favorites that she gave me as a gift.  I will try not to forget to share it at a later date.

Teapots with Attitude

When sophomore Aman Patel is not busy making clay surprises for me (see yesterday's post), he's actually a really good designer and craftsman.  His piece above shows off his skills.

These are handbuilt clay teapots from my Beginning Ceramic kids.  Their assignment was to not only make a teapot that functions, but to design it so that is whimsical, expressive and not the norm.  Below we see senior Tim Chai's very funky piece.  I believe in the 70's we would have said this piece looks like it's trying to "Keep on Truckin".  You totally nailed the assignment Tim!

In senior Claudine Talamayan's pot she has put on a very playful knob and an extra long spout.  Very sweet.

These kids were also required to use multiple glazes in a pouring or splattering technique.  So as you can see in junior Rita Labib's Dr. Suessish teapot below, she has poured tan glaze overtop turquoise. 

Above senior Michelle Lee struggled with the whimsy in this assignment, but I think in the end she definitely got a teapot out of the norm.

Below is junior Tahnee and her very cute little piece with a great splattered design.

I adore junior Stella Park's fun pot above with it's really pretty glaze spots. 

Seniors Alice Cho and Priya Shah have both used our white glaze overtop our turquoise.  But the results are so different because one splattered and the other poured.

Senior Jaimee Chirico went in a completely different direction.  Her whimsy came in the form of an exaggerated female form, holding her heart in her hand.  And her glazing is equally intriguing.

Senior Stephen Frianeza really came up with a very unique design with this cool piece below.

These 3 little cuties belong to seniors Brian Hur, Brady Son and Shaun Pak. 

Next we see senior Shayna Franklin's very funky piece below.  Love her glaze job with the combo. of pouring and controlled splatter.

Senior Sangita Rajan's teapot above has so much attitude.  Great job kiddo.

Kelsey Chang, senior, has built a very cool little band aide knob, but it's her glaze job that has me taking a second look.  Our white over top our black.  Love the texture that she's getting in the overlaps.

And Kelsey being Kelsey, as she always does,  finishes the assignment early and then created this more traditional, very lovely teapot below.

For many of you, this was your first time to make my blog post, congrats  :)