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Pottery

Instructors- Mr. Wojchick, Mrs. Haverty

I. Course Description

Ceramic Art finds expression in many forms, including vessels, sculpture, and tiles. The ceramics emphasis offers students the opportunity to work with a wide range of ceramic forms and techniques. Students gain an awareness of historical and contemporary ceramics and the craft skills necessary to make their own ceramic art successful. Pottery offers students the opportunity to work with both hand-built and thrown forms, as well as functional and sculptural images.

II. Course Goals

The main objective of the pottery course is to develop the student’s craft skills in a variety of techniques including hand-built forms and thrown forms. Students will experience basic methods of forming, decorating, underglazing, glazing and firing pottery forms.

Specific goals for Pottery encompass:

A. Creative Expression

1. Applying media, techniques and processes with control and understanding, as well as,

    developing an individual design sense.

By the end of Pottery, a student will develop skill using:

· Hand Building Methods - Pinch, coil, drape, slab and modelling techniques

· Wheel or Throwing Methods -centering, symmetry in form, even thickeness in walls, weight proportionate in size of form, aesthetics of form

· A variety of surface textures, surface design, and compositional techniques

· A variety of clay bodies

· A variety of color solutions using underglazes, glazes, and oxides

· function and art through a variety of three-dimensional forms

B. Cultural Heritage – Understanding the visual arts in relation to history and culture

1. Differentiating among a variety of historical and cultural contexts in terms of characteristics and purposes of works of potter

2. Using historical and cultural understanding to inform personal pottery making

3. Visiting, when possible, local resources (museums, historical and cultural sites)

C. Criticism and Aesthetics

1. Evaluating a wide range of subject matter, symbols, and ideas with an understanding of context, values, and aesthetics

2. Reflecting on various interpretations to better understand specific works of art

3. Developing personal aesthetic criteria to assess the characteristics and merits of their work and the work of others

 

By the end of Pottery, the student will be able to recognize different building techniques, surface applications, glazing effects, quality craftsmenship, integrity of design, analyze and evaluate their effectiveness, and interpret meaning in his or her own artwork and in the art of others. Students will also learn working ceramics terms and will be able to guide a beginning student through any basic building technique from start to finish.

D. Interdisciplinary and Daily Life Connections

1. Comparing the processes of crafting pottery with those of other arts and non-arts disciplines

 

2. Understanding characteristics of pottery within a particular historical period or style with ideas, issues, or themes of that period or style

3. Creating pottery pieces to solve interdisciplinary problems

 

E. Career Opportunities

1. Selecting and preparing work for exhibition

2. Selecting and preparing work for admissions portfolio

3. Understanding career opportunities in the visual arts and the preparation needed for Pottery careers

4. Demonstration and/or lecture by visiting artists

 

F. Responsibility, Materials Management and Portfolio Building

 

1. Safe, responsible, cooperative studio behaviors

2. Students will keep a journal or record of all works, complete with illustrations and notes on clay bodies, techniques, glazes, personal notes and self assessment.

3. Students will keep a visual record of completed works through the use of digital photography.

4. Students will learn, understand and apply proper health and safety standards and issues associated with a ceramics studio.

5. Students will gain a working knowledge of the kiln, including;  loading, firing and unloading the kiln.

6. Students will maintain a clean and organized studio space.

7. Students will organize and inventory ceramics supplies and equipment.

G. Accountability and Time Management - Productive worker in the studio, reliable and safety conscious.

The course addresses Student expectations 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,13,14.

III. Course Content and Outline

Quarter One

Emphasis on hand building techniques and processes using a variety of clay bodies, underglazes, glazes, oxides and other surface decorating processes and materials.

Introduction to Pottery, studio space, equipment, supplies and etiquette
Health and Safety Information -A potter’s survival guide.
Ceramic Terms -A to Z definitions.
Firing Process -complete run through of the modern firing system.
Ceramics History - Ancient Cultural styles to modern art forms.
Hand Building Methods -Pinch, Coil, Slab, Drape, Sculpture, Combination.
Basic Wheel or Throwing Techniques -centering, cylinders, bowls.
Decorative Design -slips, subtraction, additive, mixing clay bodies.
Underglazes -exploring, utilizing and tracking color, pattern and design.
Glazes -understanding, implementing and recording a variety of application techniques.

Quarter Two

Emphasis on wheel or throwing techniques, as well as further development of hand building techniques including innovative solutions to basic and more complex design problems

Research -Ancient forms to Modern trends, Web sites, Visiting a working studio.
Wheel or Throwing Techniques -cups, bowls, vases, mugs, teapots.
Decorative Design -slips, subtraction, additive, mixing clay bodies.
Underglazes -exploring and utilizing color, pattern and design.
Glazes -understanding a variety of application techniques.
Semester Project

IV. Methodology

Discussion

Critique

Cooperative work

Demonstration

Research

Studio work

Journal

Visual record

V. Assessment

Students will be expected to actively participate in critiques and will be continuously involved in self assessment. Informal checks of student progress will be routine. Individual project grades based on criteria set for each assignment. Formal review and evaluation of student works occur four times during the course with the instructor.

VI. Resources

Formal list includes:
Books and Periodicals, Internet sites, Videos, Slides and Prints, Newspapers and Galleries

Books and Periodicals

 

Claywork, Leon I. Nigrosh
The Complete Book of Ceramic Art, Rothenberg
Clay and Glazes for the Potter, Rhodes
Creative Clay Design, Rottger
Clay in the Classroom, George Bradford
Ceramics, Nelson
Pottery- Form and Expresson, Wildenhain
Ceramic Style, Hinchciffe & Barber
Ceramic Sculpture, Ford

Ceramics Monthly magazine

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