I have only ever made simple shapes in ceramics. I have never made an animal other than the alebrijes my first year of art. So I knew that this would definitely be a challenge. I decided to make my grandma's dog, Charlie, to match my final art project. I used pinch pots for this project and I put a hole in the back so it wouldn't explode in the kiln.
Food Project
I LOVE Jimmy John's so I decided to make my project about Jimmy John's. I made a sandwich holder and two cookie plates. I made them with slabs and then I folded up the sides to make the plates. It was a lot of fun.
Under the Sea
For this project, we made two pieces that go along with Under the Sea theme. I decided to make a seahorse on a rock for my first one. It looked like a worm at first until I added the mohawk part. And then I made an underwater volcano. I loved making the coral, it was really fun to make. I stabbed the circles a bunch of times and then it looked like coral. I am going to take a picture of it finished.
Tea for Two
For this project, we designed and created our own identical teacups and saucers. I decided to do mine as a leaf and vine theme because I like brown and green and it seems like a pretty and clean color combination to do on a tea set. I made my cups and saucers from slabs because that is my favorite way to make them. The handles were not as difficult to put on as I thought because I carved indentions on the side so I can easily attach them. My glaze came over very evenly on these items and I am happy about that.
Final
This is my final project and at first I wanted to make a bear mug, but then I completely changed my mind. I decided to make a bunny off of the Sims because that's something that I'm more interested in. I started by making the holder with a slab. I kept my project sprayed so it worked a lot easier than my previous ones. Then I dug holes into the sides to place the eyes and nose. I placed the ears on top and they stuck very easily. I put a LOT of glaze on it because I wanted it to look exactly like the real color.
Home-made Clay
This project, we had to make clay. We cut pieces off of the hard clay and then smashed them with a rolling pin. Then we sifted them to get rid of the big pieces so that it would mix well with the water. Then I mixed the clay pieces with the water and had to kneed it for a while. I decided to make a small smiley face.
Slab
For this project, we had to roll out the clay first. I decided to make a heart box. But then I decided to make it be kind of like a book holder. Making the hearts was easy but putting up the walls were kind of hard to do. Especially because my clay kept drying. We got it to glaze glue back together luckily though. It didn't turn out as good as I wanted it to, but it's fine. I think I just don't like the color of it because I liked the heart design.
Coil Pots
For this project, we made pots out of coils. Native Americans used to make pots using this process. I think this was a lot easier than the pinch pots in my opinion. I had a lot of fun with this project. My only problem was that halfway during my process of making the pot, it dried out so I had to wet down my clay and almost reconstitute it. I decided to put feathers on it because I love anything to do with Native Americans, so I thought that it would go good together especially since we were creating the pots using their process. But then... my pot cracked and broke. I have no idea how though. But then we ended up fixing it by glaze gluing it back together.
3 Pinch Pots
For this project, we had to make an object out of at least three pinch pots. I decided to make a vase. I made it be decorated in hearts. I carved them around the middle of it and shaped the opening to be a heart shape. So the whole thing is heart themed. It was a lot of fun to do! And it was really cool seeing how it all came together.
Pendants
For our first project, we had to make three pendants. I made mine all small and light enough for necklaces. I made a diamond, heart, and worm. I didn't get any progress photos before I put them in the kiln unfortunately.