Ceramics

Although my own discipline is graphics, I do also really enjoy ceramics. I am very sorry that I haven't had the opportunity to put much more time into this area on a personal level.

However during teaching practice I did get the chance to teach ceramics to a Yr9 group.

The brief assigned via the department head was to make a vase which looks like the one pictured. It's quite an odd piece, not really a vase, but not sculpture either.

The reason it looks like this was that the pupils were to consolidate two techniques that had learnt in Yr7 and Yr8. The two skills were slab construction and pinch pots.

As the training teacher my freedom came in the form the decoration should take. I chose a new method (for me) away from painted glaze or textured surface. The method was 'Scraffito' or scratch technique.

The final shape reminded me of joints, be they plumbing joints or bone joints. Pipe work or bones became the decoration for the outside. Students took time during the drying process to make observation drawings of old rusty pipes, taps, animal bones and skulls. They used a variety of drawing techniques including biro, technical pencil, pen and ink (metal and bamboo nibs). Using fine nibs meant they could feel the scratchy style of drawing the clay surface would provide.

I encouraged students to experiment with cross-hatching and short strokes for shading.

After the biscuit firing students applied oxide blotches. The blotches were where the students drew/scratched on their joint drawings. The scratched strokes removed the oxide glaze. Finally the vase was dipped in an opaque glaze that allowed the oxide to take effect and show the drawn decoration beneath.

Although the final piece was quite strange looking, the work completed was successful. Students showed good technical understanding in the making and decorative stages. However were I required to set a new scheme of work to utilise slab construction and pinch pots the final outcome would look different.