Welcome to Leo's Ceramics Blog!
THE MUG PROJECT
So what was the project?
So what was the project?
In this particular project, the mug making project, we had to use the wheel in order to create four mugs, two of which had to be similar to one another, using various skills we developed through a good part of this course.
What did you learn?
Not only did we learn how to properly use the wheel, but we also learned how to center a wedged piece of clay and how to develop the basic shape of a mug from there. We additionally learnt how to attach a handle to our mugs as well as how to trim them once they were in the leather hard stage. These steps were undeniably hard for me personally, as creating mugs that appear similar sounds simple, however the process requires time and effort that I previously didn't think was needed to accomplish the mug making process. At times I even became frustrated with the project, as some of my mugs dried into the bone dry stage before I had the chance to add handles to them, lengthening the process. The handles also became a challenge for me, as I couldn't create strong handles that matched any of my mugs. While I did finish the project in then end, I had to engage a fierce determination within me in order to do so, strengthening my skills as a potter while increasing the amount of respect I have for other potters and their work.
What was the process?
Step 1)
- Wedging the clay. Once I wedged the clay into a good starting piece, I centered it the best I could but pushing and basically hitting it into the bat on the wheel. However, this is only the first step of centering, and in order to properly complete the centering procedure, I had to push it into the bat with the purpose of making it as flat as possible. Once I did that, I then continued to push up the walls of the clay until I had my centered spherical cup on my bat.
Step 2)
- As we can see here, this step is the aftermath of pushing the clay walls up to create a cylinder. To test if it was centered, you can see me holding two fingers to the mug to see if they move or not.
Step 3)
- Once I was happy with my centered cylinder, I started to push my two thumbs into the center to create the hollow part of my mug where the liquid one is trying to drink is stored.
Step 4)
- As you can see, after I had increased my cups depth to a satisfactory point, I measured the distance from the base of the mug to the top of bottom part of my mug using a needle tool.
Step 5)
- After I was happy with the basic layout of my mug, I needed to increase the height of my mug by putting two fingers, one on the inside, one on the outside of the mug, which forced the mugs walls to move upwards to create a taller mug. This step also decreased the distance thickness of the walls of my mug.
Step 6)
- After getting my walls to a point in which the cup would be able to hold enough liquid to satisfy one in one sitting, I smoothed out the rim of my mug with my thumb to create an even and smooth rim.
Step 7)
- At this point in the creation of my mug, I felt that it was good enough to take off the bat and leave it to dry into the leather hard stage of clay. This first step in getting my mug off the bat was scrapping any excess clay of the bottom of the mug using the needle tool.
Step 8)
- Once my mug had a clean bottom, I needed to remove it from the bat using the wire tool. I used this tool to help in the removal process by slowly rotating the wheel while moving the wire through the clay.
Step 9)
- Once my to be mug was off the bat and my wheel was cleaned up, I put my mug into a plastic covered tray to make sure that while the mug dried, it wouldn't dry to the point of the bone dry stage.
What would be the next steps of creating your mug?
The next step to completing the mug would be to trim the bottom of the mug to get a smooth and stable bottom that can support the mug. Once you have trimmed your mug, you can score your art work and attach a handle using slip. You can also add hard clay to the handle and mug to make the handle more secure.
THE SLAB PROJECT
What was your thought process?
When I first started thinking about creating a slab with additional clay that had been imprinted or scored onto it, I thought it would be a fairly quick and simple process. However, I had no idea what I wanted to base my project on, and so I went for a simplistic idea of creating a turtle shell, however I soon realized that that would be too easy, and so I went for creating a 3-dimensional project and created a cylinder. However that didn't work out, so I contemplated my options and decided to go with a basket. I liked the 3-D idea, but I couldn't create a cylinder, so I created a rectangular prism. One I had a good basket styled starting point, I thought about what to add to it, and thus I came up with the idea of drawing the product moment correlation coefficient equation onto the side of the basket and a bunch of 1s and 0s in a binary styled format to symbolize these things being thrown away. While this project might seem a bit 'different' than typical projects, I had come up with a project that symbolized my attitude to some things I had learnt while studying in the UK, binary and statistics. Since these ideas were been 'put' into the 'waste' basket, it symbolized me forgetting these concepts as they don't help me and I don't need them anymore.
THE SLAB PROJECT
What was your thought process?
When I first started thinking about creating a slab with additional clay that had been imprinted or scored onto it, I thought it would be a fairly quick and simple process. However, I had no idea what I wanted to base my project on, and so I went for a simplistic idea of creating a turtle shell, however I soon realized that that would be too easy, and so I went for creating a 3-dimensional project and created a cylinder. However that didn't work out, so I contemplated my options and decided to go with a basket. I liked the 3-D idea, but I couldn't create a cylinder, so I created a rectangular prism. One I had a good basket styled starting point, I thought about what to add to it, and thus I came up with the idea of drawing the product moment correlation coefficient equation onto the side of the basket and a bunch of 1s and 0s in a binary styled format to symbolize these things being thrown away. While this project might seem a bit 'different' than typical projects, I had come up with a project that symbolized my attitude to some things I had learnt while studying in the UK, binary and statistics. Since these ideas were been 'put' into the 'waste' basket, it symbolized me forgetting these concepts as they don't help me and I don't need them anymore.
