Ceramics

Ceramics

Throughout the project, my level of technique in ceramics has greatly increased.  At the start, I struggled to find the form I was looking for and had trouble creating a smooth piece.  This can be seen in my maracca, as it is lumpy and slightly mis-shapen.  However, using the slab technique, my drum turned out extremely smooth and I was able to create an abstract, unique form.  I definately had an easier time hand building my pieces. I struggled with the wheel and never created a successful that was fired.  However, I learned alot about creating pottery and had a blast spinning clay.

When creating a drum, you have to make sure that it actually works.  When creating my drum I just had to make sure that it had a round head for the skin and an opening at the bottom.  With that in mind, I was able to create a unique form.  I really like the way that the drum was pressed at certain parts to create fluid piece.  The dimples also work really well when playing the drum. The grooves fit perfectly under your armpit or between your legs. Overall, I felt like 'function' put very little limitation on 'form' when creating a drum.

The only thing that I would do differently in this project would be that I would spend more time on the pottery wheel.  I never found success spinning clay and If I set aside a few more days to spin rather than work on the drum, I probably could have made a piece worth keeping. other than that, I am very happy with my drum and maracca. 

The next step for me in ceramics would probably be to create something smaller that focused more on detail.  I think it would be cool to try to create a model of some sort that highlighted detail versus just a simple overall form, such as the drum.  I would also like to work on the wheel again.  However, It would be nice to have a break from clay so I could work with wood or another material.