Kevin's Art Blog: Clay Project Alternate Assignment

Kevin Repice Period 7

Clay Project Alternate Assignment

Ceramics is the two thousand plus year old art or technique of making objects from clay and firing them at high temperatures in a kiln so that they permanently keep their sculptural forms (3-D). It is an example of functional art, art that also has another job, and is sometimes called “art pottery”. “Art pottery” is created largely for its decorative, aesthetic value more than its utilitarian/functional value. “Art pottery” includes clay sculptures, as well as, plates, platters, casseroles, mugs, mixing bowls, bathroom tiles, etc. Ceramics is one of the most ancient industries in the world. Dating as far back as 24000 BC, clay was used in addition with water and heating to create animal and human figurines found in present day Czech Republic. Around 10000 years later (14000 BC), tiles were formed in Mesopotamia and India. The first functional use of pottery is believed to be seen around 9000 or 10000 BC. Clay bricks were created at around the same time. At around 5000-8000 BC, glaze was discovered in Egypt. By 3000 BC, the potter’s wheel was created. In ninth to first century BC, glaze was being used for making clay impermeable to liquids, so that it is easier to store liquids. In fifth century, African terracotta sculptures were seen. In the Han Dynasty of China (206 BC-220 CE) porcelain for ceramics was first seen.

Clay can be used as a medium for ceramic artwork. Clay has plasticity, meaning that it can hold its form while being able to be manipulated by the artist’s hands. It also has porosity, meaning it is porous enough to dry without cracking. And lastly, clay has vitrification, meaning clay can be hardened or it becomes glasslike. Clay is soft and malleable and found in the earth. There are three different types of clay: stoneware, terracotta, and porcelain. Stoneware is a dense, hard, and nonporous (no holes) type of clay that fires white at around 1200-1300 degrees Celsius, or 2190-2370 degrees Fahrenheit. Terracotta is a durable, strong, low-fired, red type of clay most famously used in the Terracotta Warriors guarding Emperor Qin Shi Huang in Xi‘an, China. Porcelain is a type of clay that is fired at 2300 plus degrees Fahrenheit, and offers the optimum qualities of smoothness. It is made with the ingredient kaolin, or china clay, mixed with other ingredients to give it plasticity and to achieve the dense, hard, white, translucent clay body of porcelain.

Functional art describes aesthetic objects that have utilitarian purposes, while fine art applies to works that carry an intellectual and emotional sensibility alongside a dose of old-fashioned beauty. Ceramic art is a type of functional art because it includes making pottery and other things that can be used for other uses. Vases, bowls, cups, and storage containers are all examples of how ceramics is a type of functional art.

The three types of building construction for ceramic art are pinch construction, coil construction, and slab construction.

Pinch Construction- An ancient and contemporary form of pottery construction which begins with a ball of clay. Thumbs are pushed into the center and walls are thinned using pinching. A flat base is made by pushing the bottom onto a flat surface.

Coil Construction- A type of clay construction which begins with chunks of wedged clay shaped into coils of evenly rolled out clay and scored, slipped, stacked on, and sometimes smoothed around a base to create a vessel.

Slab Construction- A type of clay construction which begins with clay that is wedged, evenly rolled out flat, cut into shape, and joined to other clay pieces.

To join pieces of clay together, there needs to be three things done: wedging the clay, scoring the clay, and adding slip. Wedging is kneading the clay to eliminate all air bubbles from the clay so that the piece will not “blow up” in the kiln. Scoring is a process in which a person scratches, or roughens, 2 pieces of wet clay with a tool to join them together. Slip, a mixture of water and clay used as “glue” to knit pieces of clay together for firing. It is added for sealing between two pieces of clay.

To use the wheel in ceramics is to use the potter’s wheel to create a vessel from wet clay. This process is different from hand-building clay because it uses the aid of a either manual or motorized rotating piece to help create an even surface all the way around the vessel rather than having the artist walk around the vessel to gain that same effect.

The three stages of clay drying are green ware, leather-hard, and bone dry. Green ware is first and it is unfired, wet clay. Leather-hard is second and is partially dry clay still unfired. Bone dry the last in the drying process and is dry, fragile clay with no water left in the clay. Bone dry clay is ready to be fired.

A kiln is an enclosed device or oven that is designed to permanently harden clay. The kiln uses heat at very high temperatures to make sure that clay hardens and maintains its form and structure so that the clay can be decorated and/or glazed. Bisque firing is the first firing of clay in the kiln before painting or glazing the clay.

Glaze is a thin coating of minerals and pre-melted glass painted on the surface of clay that has a glasslike appearance after glaze firing, the second ceramic firing of clay. It is used in ceramics to give clay a glassy and glossy look. It also serves to color, decorate, waterproof, or weatherproof a vessel.

Ron Nagel, a Californian artist, has simple designs with intricate colors, shape and textures. Most of his works are small, but each and every one is explicitly detailed in its own way.

Sterling Ruby’s ceramic artwork is very chaotic and looks very messy, like Jackson Pollock mixed with clay. There seems to be a pattern of randomness with his ceramics and he seems to enjoy the warm colors and earthen colors in his artwork.