October 6, 2008 Get your Notebooks OR A blank piece of paper Toothpick Sculptures will be continued next week…
Wide World of Clay Basic Terminology to Get You Started
Ceramics: Pottery or hollow clay sculpture fired at high temperatures in a kiln to make them harder and stronger.
Vessel: A hollow container for holding something. Can also be “pottery”
Pinch Pot: Vessel created with basic pinching technique. Walls of vessel should be thin and smooth
Wedge: Clay is thoroughly kneaded before used to remove air pockets.
Coil Construction: Coils are long, snake-like ropes of clay that are used in making pottery.
Slab Construction: A pottery technique in which a form is built up by joining shapes cut from thick sheets of damp clay.
Scoring: To make scratches or creases in pieces of clay to be joined together.
Slip: Liquid made by mixing finely ground clay with water.
Greenware: clay that is completely air dry but not fired
Fire: the process of cooking clay so that it becomes impermeable and completely dry
Kiln: Oven that can reach very high temperatures and is used to fire clay until it hardens
Bisque ware: Clay that has been fired once but not glazed.
Glaze: Thin coating of minerals which produces a glassy transparent or colored coating on bisque ware.
First Clay Project: Abstract NATURAL FORMS You will learn the basic techniques of hand building with clay Each technique will be repeated in various ways for you to create a unique and curious sculpture
Artists to inspire you…
Karl Blossfeldt German photographer Designed his own special camera so he could zoom in very closely to natural objects Achieved whimsical, abstract forms with great detail
Georgia O’Keeffe American painter Famous for her zoomed- in paintings of flowers, rocks, shells, bones and landscapes