Student Artwork and Reflections

Students completed a unit which focused on becoming inspired by a contemporary ceramicist that they found in a Ceramics Monthly magazine. The students had the choice of what to make, how to make it, how big or small they wanted to create their piece, and they created their project on their own time without a specific due date.

The artist I became inspired by for this project was Katharine Morling. She handbuilds 3D sculptures, and paints them. When she paints them, she outlines them making them seems like sketch lines. I decided to try her technique and outlining my piece as she does. The idea behind my project was making a detailed camera, but also including something unique inspired by Katherine’s pieces. I decided to make my camera into a piggy bank to store/save money. If you lift off the flash, there is a slot for money to go into the bank. There is also a cork at the bottom to take money out. Building the camera overall was a challenge because I had trouble adding on the lens,. Since the lens was so heavy, it caused my camera box to lose its shape. However I managed to fix it and made it look as even as possible. Another challenge was painting the black lines on the camera because they were so thin and I had to get them straight. My favorite part of my camera is the lens because I liked the way the textures came out, Overall, I believe my first project in Ceramics II went well and am happy of how it turned out since it reflected my idea.

The name of my artist that I was inspired by is Li Lihong. In his art, he makes 3-Dimensional pieces of popular icons/logos and paints on top of them. His paintings reflect hisculture, being from China, he painted designs that are popular in chinese art. For my piece, I took a popular icon, The Rolling Stones logo, and made it 3D. I painted the tongue the Mexican flag, which portrays my hispanic culture, and various designs that associated to mexican art pieces. The idea behind my project is to reflect how music is a big part of one’s life. I took a well-known, rather famous, logo of a band and painted it with designs that reflect where I came from and the things that I was raised on. It also combines my cultural history with my present culture. This projectmade me explore the different ways and techniques that I could use to make my project, so it was a little difficult for me to figure out the correct way of going about with this piece.My favorite part of my project are the 3D lips, because it was easy to do and I liked the way it completed my project. An area that I wish I can improve on is the tongue, I could have added more coils of clay to make it have more of a realistic surface feeling. If I could start over, I would develop a better way of having my piece stand straight up and already knowing how to do it instead of waiting until I got to thatstep to think about it. Overall, I think my first project went well for it being the first project ofthe year, I am very happy with it.

I was inspired by one of Jennifer McCurdy’s pieces. Jennifer McCurdy built this beautiful piece that resembled a flower. Her piece was breathtaking it had detailed carvings and textural leaves. . The idea behind my project was that it was going to look equality pretty as hers but it was not. The process wasn’t hard, it was just hard to get started, but I eventually got past that. I just think it was a long process because I had to make carvings on every individual leaf. My favorite part of my project is the ability to put stuff in it. It’s shaped like a bowl with long leaves going down the sides because it is big and can hold a lot of stuff. If I could start over again I would have made the texture of the leaves differently. I would have also changed the inside and made it bigger.

The name of the artist I chose for this project was George Rodriguez. The way I would describe this artist's work is that it has an ancient look to it. It seems like his work represents a beautiful life through the flowers and death through the skulls. The way my final project reflects the artist's style is that I used flower and skulls around my entire piece. My final project somewhat turned out just how I imagined but if I were to change anything I would change the way I made the flowers a little bit. The process of making this project was not as difficult as I was thinking it would be but it is took much longer to complete than I thought it would. My favorite part of the project was making the skulls because I thought it was cool the way I made the a plaster mold of a skull that I made out of clay, and then I was able to make multiple little skulls at a time. An area I wish I could have improved on on my piece was the flowers because they did not really turn out the way I wanted them to. I was very happy with the way my piece turned out and I am also very excited to see what future projects we will be making.

The artist that I was inspired by was Chandra DeBuse. Her art is very bubbly and organic but also very organized and clean. I liked that she made very practical and sculptural pieces like plates, cups, bowls, and display platters. I found one of her two tiered platters featured in a Ceramics Monthly magazine. I liked it so such that I made three tiered platter based on the organic shapes of her plates and nature inspired designs. I feel that her art was reflected in mine with the natural shape of each individual platter. I also tried to show her nature inspired designs in mine. My final project did not turn out exactly like my prototype because instead of two tiers I made three tiers. I did this because there was just too much of a size difference between the top and bottom tier to not put a third on. Making this project was sort of difficult because I took a year off between Ceramics I and Ceramics II, so I had to get used to the clay again. My favorite part of the project was figuring out how to stack the slabs, and coming up with a way to hollow out the middle support pieces. I liked this part because I just love solving problem like this, that was something I really missed about ceramics when I didn’t have this class. I wish I could have worked on the cleanliness of my piece, that has always been a challenge for me.

The name of my artist is Beth Cavener. Her art is raw and emotional. She shows depression, anger, and fear through her pieces which is represented through animals. The idea behind my project was to have a Koi fish beached on a lily pad, and the Koi fish is tangled up in fishing wire trying to escape. I wanted to use the element of fear in the form of innocents. My final project is everything I had imagined it to be, I am so proud of this piece. The only difficulty I had during this entire processes was making the face of the Koi fish. It took me about three days to get the face to a point that I actually liked. I had a point when I was sculpting my piece where the fish broke in half, The tail fell completely off and I had to score and slip it back together. I used the issue of the fish's tail falling off as inspiration to name the piece, "The Struggle". The favorite part of my project has to be the body of the fish, it curves exactly how I wanted it to and has the exact shape that I had wanted. Overall I think my first project went pretty well other than my minor mishap with the tail breaking off. I’m really happy with my final piece since it’s what I envisioned in my head.

For my first project, I chose to be inspired by the ceramicist Ken Matsuzaki. I like Matsuzaki because he uses interesting glazing techniques and I like the simplicity of his pieces. Since we didn't have the type of glazes he uses in his projects, I decided to make a similar design of how it would look with his glazes. I think that my final project came out pretty good with the exception of the lid because I could have done a better job of making it fit. My favorite part of the project was the carving because last year in Ceramics I I did a carving assignment, but I didn't take as much time with that assignment because I felt rushed. This year I was able to work on my piece at my own pace and I didn't feel rushed, so I took my time and really focused on the carvings. I like my project because I saw an improvement from my slab project last year in Ceramics I to this project in Ceramics II.

Watch a time-lapse video of this piece here

The artist's that I was inspired by was Andrea Moon, If there was one word that would describe her style it would be coils. She builds most of her projects with coils and makes her final shape with a bunch of circles meshed together. My piece reflects her general style because I cut out a bunch of shapes in my piece and scored and slipped coils on my lantern to achieve my desired look. My final project looks a little different from what I envisioned in my head. It turned out a little bit thinner and taller than what I had imagined but I still think it looks good. This project was not that challenging for me, I didn't aim too high with my expectation, and looking back I think that I should have tried to build something more challenging. My favorite part of my project is the lid. It has a bunch of coils that look like tree branches that are intertwined to make the lid, It looks kind of like a campfire. An area of improvement on my piece might be some of the holes in the sides that are very large, They should have been cut with a design to make it look better. If I could start over, I would build the piece with coils so it would be more like the artist that I had picked to reflect, I am happy with my first piece in ceramics II and it went pretty smooth.

When looking through Ceramics Monthly, I came across the ceramicist Ann Van Hoey. I was allured by her thin, simplistic, clean style of pottery. It was just aesthetically pleasing. Such elegant and smooth yet jagged cuts look unusually attractive. The idea of my project was to make at least three functional pieces with a similar style to Ann Van Hoey. I also wanted the three or more pieces to look like they would belong together as a set, while each was uniquely distinguishable from the others. My final project did indeed reflect what I had in mind. When doing my cuts, I just randomly selected areas of the piece and put it over itself. The project was not incredibly difficult, but I did have its hard moments. For instance, the clay would crack at certain areas of each piece, and I had to scrap two of my pieces and restart from scratch. I think my favorite part of the project was the pure originality of each piece. No two piece was cut the same, sure some may look similar, but each cut was totally random, and could be folded in two different ways. Overall, I see a major improvement from last years ceramics class, and I am amazed at the final result,

The name of my artist was Judi Tavill. Her art to me is very sculptural and creative. My final project reflects Judi Tavill’s work because it included a large amount of carving. The idea behind my project was to reflect on one of the pieces that Tavill made where she made deep carvings in the clay and then she pinched them up. Overall my project reflected the idea that I had in my head except for some of the pieces that I pinched up started cracking and breaking off which required me to do a lot of scoring and slipping to fix them . In my opinion I found this project very difficult because I could never set my piece down because then the raised parts would bend or break off . I also kept getting a lot of cracks on the inside of my piece. Sometimes I ended up carving too deep into my piece which resulted in a hole that I would have to patch up. My favorite part of the project was carving because carving was just really fun to me, It was something I had never done before and I ended up liking it a lot!

The artist I was inspired by was Lindsay Scypta. Her style is very unique. She takes multiple individual pieces and puts them together to make one special piece. Her artwork is intricate yet simple. My final project is based on three pieces that can be used individually as functional pieces, but in the end you can stack them all together and create one sculptural piece. In my head my plan for my project was for it to be bigger it is now. Either way I’m still happy with how my pieces turned out and the amount of detail that they have. I didn’t imagine my pieces to have as much detail as they do. Creating these three pieces was really hard! I needed to practice for a very long time to get an end product, but that is okay. With practice my skill and technique will get better but I did struggle a lot with creating my project. It took three and a half straight weeks of practicing and then in one week I managed to create my final pieces. My favorite part of my project would have to be the detail that I carved into these three pieces. I really liked how I used a different glaze color in the cracks vs the surface, because it really made my designs pop. I worked hard and dedicated a lot of time in making these pieces different and unique.

Branan Mercer was the inspiration for my ceramic pieces. I would describe his pieces as sleek, chic, and nonchalant. My final project reflects his works by having two pieces that juxtapose one another, and having one piece that is the happy-medium of both pieces. The idea behind my project was to create three small bowls. They still follow the juxtaposing and happy-medium ideas, however, one of the cups became too big and so I decided to make it a small pitcher. The two small bowls do reflect my original brainstorming ideas. But the pitcher became a last minute change in my plans as it wasn’t originally intended. To me this project was difficult in making the tiny bowls. It was hard for me because I haven’t used the potter's wheel in so long. My favorite part of the project was having the freedom to make a piece that you personally wanted. Creating your own ideas inspired by others was really fun. Something wish that I could’ve improved on would be the pitcher. Even though it was accidental, I think that I should’ve at least put some more effort into making it look as if it was on purpose. If I were to do it over, I think that I would create the sizes of the cups differently. So far, I think that it was pretty fun. Knowing that it’s my first piece, this is a stepping stone to grow and improve on my ceramic abilities for my future projects.

My artist was Andrea Denniston and her artwork is very nature based. She makes cups, bowls, plates, and pieces that have very unique looks. One of her pieces I have never seen anything like it before, and I thought it looked appealing and interesting so I chose to base my piece off it. Andrea uses nature looks and colors to add to her pieces and so when I glazed my piece I chose to glaze it blues and greens like Andrea does. The idea of my project was to create a piece like hers but with my own style. I wanted the openings like hers but I didn't want my piece to look as full as hers so I made it more open. Making this piece was difficult to get the sides to stay up how I want and not collapse but other than that I had fun. My favorite thing from my project was choosing the glazes because I want to use greens and blues like Andrea does and the colors I chose reflect perfectly. If I had the chance to start over I don't think I would do anything differently. So for my first Ceramics II project I am very proud of myself and like how it came out.

The ceramicist I was inspired by was Christopher David White. His pieces have texture in them and most of his pieces resemble small pieces of wood with nature surrounding it. He inspired me to create a detailed sculpture of an eagle. The making of the project wasn't that hard but it did take awhile to add all the details. At the beginning, I struggled to find a way to make the body hollow so it wouldn't explode in the kiln. I tried different methods but none of them satisfied me. I tried making the body out of a pinch pot but it didn't look good. I tried making the body out of slabs but it was taking too long, so I decided to go with another method which was dissecting it. This method required me to sculpt the eagle out of solid clay and then cut the piece in half and hollow out the inside and then put it back together. The method worked great and it made the project much faster and easier. After finalizing the overall form, I proceed with the wings. Making the wings was the easiest part but required lots of persistence and patience. Adding all the feathers and the texture took me awhile to finish, but I managed to do it. Every feather was scored and slipped and applied to the wings one by one. The final outcome of my project was great. It turned out amazing and it looked just how I imagined it. My favorite part of my project was the face. The face of my ceramic project looked exactly like a real eagle. Making the sculpture was fun overall and I enjoyed making the piece and I had fun doing so. I love working with clay and love making sculptures. The only thing that I didn’t like about it was its size. The size of my piece was very small and I wish I would have made it little bit bigger.

The name my artist is Lar a Zilibowitz. The words I would choose to describe her style is clean and nature inspired. She creates really intricate designs and I did a few of those designs on my piece. It looks like she always has a flower in her piece so I added one in mine too. The idea behind my vase was to make something that would remind me of multiple aspects of nature. I had a sun, moon, stars, flowers, and raindrops. My final project did reflect my original idea, however, the form of my vase did not turn out how I originally sketched it out. I threw two different vases on the potter's wheel, but I decided to take both vases and score and slip them together to create one piece. The only difficult part of making this project was throwing. I had to throw several times until I finally got the shape that I wanted. I have many favorite parts of my piece. I really love the little designs on the outside. I love the sun and the moon. I love how I carved them to pop out instead of being scratched on. It gives a whole new dimension which I'm obsessed with. If I could improve on anything I would have made my sgraffito lines cleaner. If I could start over knowing how my piece looks now, I would not have given up on trying to make my vase look how I imagined it in the beginning. Overall, my final piece not only reflects my artist but me and I think it went well and really love the outcome of my vase.

My artist was Matthew Chambers and his pieces are so elegant and smooth and flow together. It’s hard to figure out how he could possibly make them. He layers bowls and bowls and bowls for his main style. These bowls are thrown inside of each other and the bowls are super close and thin, so if he made one simple mistake he would ruin the whole piece. I’m also inspired by his background because he spent so much time working under another ceramicist and building up experience and going to school for his passion. This project was super hard for me because it was hard to start throwing again. It was also hard because I tried to throw a layered style but I didn’t throw all the little layers so they were thick and it didn't mesh together well. My project was nothing near what I originally wanted because I ended up seeing a more natural grassy theme and incorporated more nature into it. I was trying to mimic the layers Matthew made but it’s impossible. My favorite part of my project is the actual bowl part, I like the shape and the fact that it has a mini bowl in it (even if you can't see it). My favorite part of my piece is how the glaze came out on top leaves because it reminds me of a river and it flows really nicely. Honestly I wasn't very happy with my overall piece, but I have learned to appreciate how the ideas all came together.

My artist name is Christopher David White. I would describe White's art as nature, creative, and majestic. White created a piece of a wooden hand chopped off at the wrist so it inspired me to create this piece. The hand had little trees growing out of the palm. One my project, the forearm is the trunk of a tree and the hand sitting on the trunk is holding a tiny bird. My project reflects his style by both having the nature theme and both involve it a hand and a tree. My favorite part of this project was making the hand. I though it was going to be difficult but in the end it wasn't difficult as I had expected, and I'm happy I was able to accomplish what I wanted. I was nervous when I glazed my tree, because I wasn't sure how the glaze would come out. I layered multiple blues and brown glazes and absolutely love how it came out. .

My artists name is Sanam Emami and she uses a lot of carving techniques on cups, plates and bowls. My final product came out to the way I wanted it to be. However in the beginning stages of my project, I had some challenges. My bowl ended up having cracks in it when it was in the process of drying. However when I ended up glazing my bowl, the glaze sealed the cracks. I carved out each of the honey combs and at first it was fun because they all connected and came out good. My darted bowl did get boring after awhile because of the repetition of honeycomb design throughout the bowl. Another challenge was my honeycomb design kept getting smeared from holding my piece in my hand while I was carving, so I started to lose the imprint of the honeycomb on the sides. If I had to restart my project I would remember to really imprint the honeycomb on the darted bowl before making it into an actual bowl so I wouldn't loose the overall design. I really like how the glaze on my darted bowl came out. I like how the honeycomb is blue on the inside yet golden on the outside.

The artist that really inspired me was Jessica Calderwood. If I would describe her art in one word it would have to be ‘real’ because all her pieces look very realistic. My final project reflected on her art because I feel like I did my best on making my cactus look real. The idea behind my project was making a cactus and a bowl. The bowl was supposed to be functional so I could eat out of it, but then I had to make some changes and now I won’t be able to eat out of it. I really like my piece but my favorite part was the cactus itself. It is my favorite part because I threw the cactus on the potter's wheel and that was something new that I’ve never done before. It was cool how I got to throw a cylinder and close it off at the top. The area of my piece that I wish I could’ve improved on was the bowl because I feel like it seems a little uneven from the side. If I could start over, I would throw the cactus first and then the bowl to make it the same size. Overall I really liked my first project in Ceramics II because I got to use the techniques I wanted to. I’m really happy with my final project because I learned a new technique that I will for sure use again for some other project in the future.

My artist was Calvin Ma he creates figurines and dolls. His pieces are sculptural and look like figures. His work is also very clean and textured. My project reflects his style because I created a character that is looking like a doll/ figurine and it did end up looking pretty similar to my original idea. this is an original that i made up myself. The final product looks a little simple however I had a hard time completing it. I had a hard time because a lot of the proportions were off when I began to sculpt. Either the head was too big or the body was too small and the clay wasn't holding up well. I had to remake the same parts of the body again and again along with restarting a lot. My favorite part of the project is just how it looks and the pose that my doll is in. I also like how the clothes poop of and it gives it a nice touch. The area on my piece that I would improve would be the hair. I think it could look better along with the proportions of the arms. But in the end I think my project came out good.

Calvin Ma’s colourful, cute, and disturbing sculptures; inspired me to make some sculptures of my own following those descriptions. I made my little sculptures have big bug eyes and round bodies. I didn’t want to make them look like colorful house shingles though, so I decided to justmake them one whole color, but roll with the creepy factor that he has. I planned on making 5 smaller versions, but due to time constraint, I made three (kind of bigger than intended). I found it was difficult to try and use as much details he used in his sculptures, so I really didn’t. My favorite part was coming up with the concepts, since I could envision how they would look,instead of actually trying to make them. I wish I could of made the pug’s face more distinguishable as a pug’s face. And if I could start over i would make them smaller and focus on more details. Though I am happy with how they turned out, since I think they’re cute. I’m excited to put them on a shelf or give them to my family.