We will explore different handbuilding techniques as follows: building with coil, building with slab, modelling a solid form and making it hollow, as well as working with a combination of these techniques. Discovery of and manipulation of clay in varying states of plasticity will also be a focus throughout this class.

The Vessel Assignment

When we build with coil we will be making a vessel.  I am defining a vessel as an object that holds something. Typically we think of a vessel as containing water, like a vase. But with this assignment lets open up the range of possibilities to include anything.  Your vessel should be a container.  It can hold air, a pile of leaves, sand, or something else.  Start thinking now about what you want your vessel to hold. When we talk about a vessel as container we're talking about the inside space, or void, or vacumm. But if we switch our perspective to the outside of the form we see a vessel as a body, or a mass. Keep in mind that the outside form and the inside space are two very different ideas. Its important to design for inside space as well as outside form or mass. The article I am asking you to read, about the work of William Daly, discusses these issues of inside/outside and form/space further. Each of the images above illustrate different aspects of a vessel. Click on each of them for a larger image and for discussion of just some of the issues that each piece explores.

Requirements:      

• Technique: Coil
• Size/Scale: 12 inches minimum
• Inside form must not be a mirror image of outside form - sculpturally the inside and outside surfaces must be different.
• The lip, or the top edge of the vessel, where the inside and the outside come together must be designed as a specific form. You need to be deliberate about this edge.
• Preliminary designs should be worked out in the sketchbook before actual work begins.
• Glazing technique: Underglaze with carving options. Again, two-dimensionally, the inside surface and outside surface should be different.
• Final drawing (prolonged study) and written discovery of the work

The Daly article deals with questions of inside/outside and edges very specifically! - Just as I am asking you to! Read this article and spend at least three pages in your sketchbook designing the vessel you will make.

Remember, the inside form should not mirror the outside form!  This will probably seem counter-intuitive.  

The first drawing is an example of "inside equals outside". (Except for my shaky hand in "photoshop") In the next two drawings the inside of the form and the outside are different sculptural shapes.  These are "inside does not equal outside".  The two drawings on the right are about the edge where inside meets outside.  In one, the inside extends out to meet the outside surface. In the other, the outside extends over to meet the inside.  Again, be specific about both of these issues.  They are important design factors that effect the final piece!

SO, Now that you have read the Daly article, make your three pages of design sketches where you focus on the inside/outside issue and the edge, or lip, issue.  Come back to class ready to start your piece!  You will want to read the sketchbook outline below.

In this class we are using our sketchbooks as a place to record ideas, as a place to design our work (and re-design as needed), as a way of looking at our completed pieces, and as a tool in analysis of the work of other artists.  Each of these steps is discussed below.

To begin a piece you will want to jot down ideas that you have for your work.  These ideas can be in the form of written language - lists of thoughts, colors, places, shapes, etc - or in the form of visual notes.  My red line drawings of vessels above are visual notes. They are NOT refined drawings that I would frame, they are simply a way of communicating a form in a drawing.  They are quick notes rather than sketches or completed drawings. Think of this process as loose brainstorming. 

Chuck Wincorn's sketches are fluid explorations of ideas of form. He kept brainstorming until he found a single idea he wanted to work with.

When you use your sketchbook to help you design you should start with note taking or sketching. Keep the images small so that they don't take too much time. Keeping them small will also enable you to see a number of options for your piece quickly and easily. You may want to re-design a piece while it is in progress.  It is much easier to redesign on paper than in clay because its a faster way of visualizing form.  Here are just a few examples of designing 3-D on paper by other students.  Do not let these examples limit you to another persons way of designing.  Instead let them guide you to new ideas.

If Niki had made each of these pieces in clay before designing them she would have spent much more time getting her final piece!

When I ask you to make a "study" of a piece I am asking you to make a drawing that may take 20 to 40 minutes.  It should be a prolonged drawing where you are trying to get a likeness of the work in front of you.  With this type of drawing I am interested in having you record what you see . This drawing is about looking - which will lead you to a discovery of form. When you look closely at something in order to recreate it you are making an active search/discovery! I will be asking you to make a prolonged study of each of your major pieces as you finish them, and will have you draw at each museum or gallery that we visit. Again, the drawings below are examples of looking at form!

Sometimes, I will ask you to draw a form and then analyze it for content - that is the ideas behind the work - and for 3-dimensional qualitites.  I'll ask you to do this for both your work and the work of other artists. Andrew Post's analysis for content below is very sensitive to the work.

For quick review:  Drawing in our sketchbooks will help us put together ideas for pieces, and help us design them. It will also help in seeing, or looking, at work, both our own and other's, as well as analyzing work.

When you have completed the vessel its important to stop and look at it, enjoy it, and spend some time thinking about what just happened, and what you have learned. As a final wrap up to the project I'm asking you to make a prolonged study of the finished piece in your sketchbook. This may take 20 to 40 minutes. After drawing it please complete the following questions, also in the sketchbook:

• Document your work (Name, Title, Date, Dimensions - HxWxD)
• Describe the most technically challenging part of the assignment. What was the most difficult part of working with clay and to what extent did you overcome this issue?
• What led you to your decisions on the inside/outside differences?
• Why did you choose to define the connection between inside and outside the way you did?
• What are the strengths of the finished piece?
• What are the weaknesses of it?
• If you made this piece again, how would you change it?

This ceramic unit, and page, were created by Janet Jacobs.

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