Clay Adventures, Part One

As I briefly mentioned in a previous post, I've started taking clay classes at the Museum, which has an impressive ceramics program. Today I'll finally tell you about the projects I made in my first class.

Normally when I'm printmaking I share pictures of the work in progress, but clay is a different animal, and since I'm very new to it, I get very messy working on it, so I only have pictures of the finished projects.

The beginning class is designed to introduce you to different techniques and glazes through three different pieces. The first one was a soft-slab vase that was raku-fired. Basically we rolled out a piece of clay, and wrapped it around a tall cylindrical or rectangular form (mine is around 2 feet high). While it was still flat we decorated the surface by pressing flat rubber shapes into the clay to create indentations.





I built the vase during my very first class, then glazed it in a different session. I filled in only the shapes and the puffy spirals with glaze, which turned a coppery red during the raku firing. The unglazed parts turned black. It's definitely one of the weirder things I've made, but while I was making it, I didn't think at all about museum work. Right now this piece is sitting in my living room, as I haven't figured out what to do with it yet.

Next week I'll tell you about the bowl I made.



Comments

  1. This looks great. Did you work on the firing? I really enjoy firing raku.
    I'm glad to see you working in clay

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  2. Thanks! I was actually out of town the night this piece was fired, but I've been assured that I will help with a future one. I'm taking a second class now.

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