PURE JOY

COIL/ SLAB/PINCH/PADDLED POTS

CERAMICS II

clay, glaze, oxide

Let me introduce senior Sarah Chang,

my top most Ceramic student this year.

We've seen several of her pieces throughout the year, 

but I couldn't resist taking this pix of her...

with her joyful smile as she shows me her finished pot.

And what a cool pot it is.

A combo. piece where she is combining a bit of everything,

coils, slabs, pinching and paddling.

Plus she had to work to a larger size and make a lidded container.

Love the ebb and flow of the design.

Sarah is truly a master craftswoman and a fabulous designer.

She will receive my Highest Ceramics Award on June 1,

at the Senior Awards Banquet Nite.

Oops, was that supposed to be a secret?

 ha ha

Congrats Sarah,

you have been an absolute pleasure to teach,

such a self-starter and so very mature and patient as I tried to handle 4 classes at once.

Thank you for always knowing what you needed to do,

even before I had a chance to tell you.

Also know that you were the faster learner I've ever had to master the potter's wheel.

I will miss you greatly.

You are in my heart and I love you so very much.

Can't wait to see where your life will take you from here.

Get Out Your Paddles

LUMP BOXES

CERAMICS I

clay, glazes, oxides

That's right, use those wooden paddles to beat, push and form your lump of clay into the most interesting shape you can.  

Then slice thru the upper portion and separate the two sections.

When they are leatherhard, carve them out so you end up with a container.

That's a Japanese Lump Box.

Ceramics I, help me out, I can't remember who belongs to this gorgeous piece.

Finishing is our Chili glaze with red iron accents.

I'm pretty darn sure this next one was created by junior William Lin.

Above you see the backside where he has hinged the lid on after the glaze firing.

I love all the stamped elements he bought into his form, and below you can see how the lid works as well as what the inside looks like.

I asked all the kids to glaze the inside since it's a container.

The outside was optional, either glazing or staining.

This next beauty was made by senior Minette Tsang.

Notice how thin and delicate the form is? 

And  below you can see how she hinged it.

She stained with Cobalt Carbonate then dipped into Transparent glaze.

Then she went back and painted Cobalt accents to highlight her vines.

Junior Jonathon Xue was the creator of this super clean piece.

Above right you can see his hinging system.

It had so many interesting angles for photographing.

Way to go Jon!

He, like William, brought in a lot of great stamped texture, then the both of then stained with Rutile oxide.

These next 3 cuties above were made by seniors Lacey Thach, Sameera Ahmad, and Neha Jain, 3 of my top senior clay artists.

And many of my favorites here were created by junior Ju Eun Lee with that sweet bird on top, senior Priya Sheth with her signature embedded metal pieces, and senior Norris Khoo with his impeccably crafted box.

Lump Boxes - Student Work

Just a few more posts to go before I finish with the 2011-2012 school year.  The last couple of days have been crazy busy getting ready for the new school year.  My new students come back this Thursday.

In the meantime, let me show off my last school year's beginning clay kid's lump boxes, a Japanese handbuilding technique.  They start with a small lump of clay that they paddle or slam onto their boards until they come up with an interesting form.  Then they slice off the top 1/4 to be used as their lid, and hollow out both top and bottom with carving tools so that they are left with 1/4" walls.  I also make sure they add surface decoration for interest.

The gorgeous piece up top belongs to senior Priya Shah.  I love how she combined the sun motif on top with the geometrics around the sides.  And then a brilliant glaze job too! 

This fun looking bean form was done by sophomore Samantha Lee.  Outstanding glazing in your surface design areas.

And below we have another highly organic form by junior Sangita Rajan.  I encouraged the kids to go for the most unusual forms they could come up with, and to try to go for asymmetry. 

Another requirement was to come up with a locking lid design other then the one we used in the slab boxes.  Look below at Sangita's really unique solution with the coil posts.  And then of course she has done a special something for the eye inside when you take the lid off with glaze and oxides.

Senor Andy Hwang has delivered another stunning piece here with his interesting form and beautiful glaze choices.  And then the inside is so lovely when you take the lid off.

Senior Kelsey Chang has also once again come through on this assignment.  She loves to do surface decoration that involves coils and pinch flowers.  She really gets how to place them within her piece.  She has also marbleized the clay before she got started so that when we take the lid off we see swirls of white and red clay.  Kelsey has attached  a coil to make her lid locked.

Senior Shayna Franklin blew me away with this piece above.  Love the stamped decoration that she put around this piece...

as well as the cool locking lid.  Fantastic piece Shayna!

And this last cutie belongs to senior Michael Marin.  I love the contrast between the hard tarnished nails against the creamy, soft form.  Wonderful work Michael and all of you!

Different Lighting, Different Angles - Student Work

I loved this piece by senior David Hyun so much that I took several shots of it; inside, outside, and different angles. 

Not only is the form well shaped, but the overlapping shapes are so interesting to the eye. And the glaze turned out truly spectacular.  And what's really crazy is it's so easy for David to turn these pieces out.  They just seem to flow out of him.  A very talented young man. 

These two pieces were done for me by my 2nd year clay kids.  Senior Melissa Garcia (above) had a totally different take on the assignment then David, but just as wonderful.  The assignment was to handbuild a piece with an "S" curve contour (small, large,small).  It was also about building with overlapping coils or shapes, and about giving the piece a lid that fit, and handles that would flow visually with the shape.  And also about embossing the overlaps with texture.  Neither David or Melissa chose to work to all the requirements, and that's called artistic license.  Did they loose points?  Yes.  But they could afford to because both had extra credit to cover those points.  So it all works out in the end.  

Lump Boxes - Student Work

These small organic boxes are called Lump Boxes and are a Japanese clay technique.  You start off with a solid lump of clay, throw and bang it all over itself on the clay board until you come up with a pleasing overall form.  I told the kids to go for a more asymmetrical form if possible, more interesting to the eye.  These top three belong to juniors David Hyun, Johanna Paz and senior Christine Castillo. 

Then you take a wire cutter and slice thru the solid form where you want your lid to come off at.  And then proceed to use a carving tool and hollow out both the box and the lid.The above three were made by senior Harry Trieu, junior Alyssa Olea and senior Robert Franklin.

I also encouraged the kids to add surface designs and sculptural elements for more interest.  Also, the lid had to lock.  I gave the kids several different solutions for this.  The above works were created by seniors Jesus Calderon and Matthew Ramos.

Lidded Container - Student Art

Just wanted to show off the work again of senior clay artist Chareena Eleazar. She was required to build a contoured coil pot with a tight fitting lid, added handles and knob. What a sweet piece this is. Senior Andrea Acosta is now the proud owner after Chareena gifted it to her after our Open House display came down. Lucky girl!

Lidded Containers - Student Work

These containers were handbuilt by my 2nd year Ceramics students last school year using a slab/pinch/paddle technique that's really fun to build with. They were supposed to also incorporate texture and have a tight fitting lid, with knobs and handles so it could be really functional. The results were wonderful. The fabulous piece above was built by senior Steven Ebalobar.

Senior Ekta Doshi's piece was so varied I had to take 3 different shots so you could truly appreciate all that she did with this assignment. What a creative designer she is! Both kids used a staining technique to finish off their pieces. Steven stained with red iron oxide and Ekta dipped her whole piece in our black glaze, left it alone on the inside , but wiped it off on the outside, so that her piece has a slight sheen to it, plus the glaze remained in all the crevices to highlight her details.

Unfinished Slab Boxes - Student Art

One of the most difficult clay assignments for my beginners is the slab box. All kinds of bad stuff can happen during and after construction. Warping, cracking, lids misaligned and so forth. So I like to take a few pix before I send them thru the firings, just in case! In a couple days I will post the glazed finished works. These two belong to seniors Cynthia Tsai and Frankie Wong.

These next two pieces were made by seniors Mark Japzon and Frank Chang, and fit almost perfectly together. It was so cool to watch how the boys had to work so closely together to make sure the two pieces lined up precisely.

All these beauties belong to seniors Rikaya Obilo, Caroline Ma, and Estelle Hong.