This will be a beginning class, for people with or without any pottery making experience. It will give an overview of basic clay techniques of hand building, slab, coil and pinch pot. Students will learn to use tools for hand building sprig molds, rollers, texture tools, and how to create slip. The class will learn about the process of creating in clay from wet clay, leather hard, bone dry green ware, bisque fired, and finally glaze fired.
Project #1 Luminaria - learn to wedge, slab down, roll clay with a roller, press texture into clay, use a can as an armature, score and slip to join the seams, learn ceramics terminologies, and stages of drying, bisque firing, and glaze firing.
Project #2 Coil bowl - Learn to roll coils, use an extruder, use a paper bowl as an armature, score and slip the coils to each other. Learn various ways of layering using coils to make decorative surfaces.
Project #3 Coffee mug- Create a well-built mug with even thickness of walls using the pinch pot method. Learn various ways of creating a handle, by pulling or rolling a handle and attaching it well to the wall of the mug with slip and smoothing the connection . Finally texture or reliefed made shapes may be added. Good craftsmanship will be emphasized.