Time Lapse Coil Building Video Series

The finished (not yet dried and fired) coil built sculpture from the videos

Much of my work is coil built. I find this technique to be the fastest, easiest, and most enjoyable way to build up asymmetrical forms fairly quickly. Throwing is faster, easier, and more pleasant for functional work and symmetrical forms, but the extra setup and cleanup, as well as the effort to alter the forms to create asymmetrical pieces makes this technique less appropriate for these types of sculptures.

The first video shows how I build without a base. I started working on a board on the table thinking I could keep it steady for the video, but almost immediately I realized I'd have to turn it to work. Usually I work on a banding wheel.

But demonstrating coil building and communicating why it is such a great technique has always been a challenge. A throwing demo is quick and impressive. Students can quickly see why it would be a great technique to master. Slabs are also fairly straight forward to demonstrate, as long as you prep some slabs ahead of time so they are leatherhard for the demo. Coil building allows for endless variations and adjustments as you build, but also takes a long time.  And that time can't be all in one sitting. Once you've reached a certain height, width, or weight, the clay needs some time to firm up before you can continue adding to the top.

For the building, I used mostly my fingers and several ribs. A serrated rib allows me to quickly adjust the surface and shape. A smooth, flexible metal rip then smooths that rough surface, and a silicon rib smooths more. I sometimes use a paddle to help adjust a shape and I also score the tope edge(s) at the start of a new building session. I don't score each coil.

This is tough to communicate in a live demonstration, because a live demonstration would require several pieces all at different stages of the build. It seems like an online/video demonstration would help, but it would still require multiple videos at different stages and the technique itself is still repetitive and, frankly, boring to watch in real time. It is also both simple, in the "I get it, you keep stacking snakes on top of snakes" way and complex in that there are nuances in how those snakes get stacked and attached.

The sculpture partway through building, after I applied the first round of texture.

I've been pondering this problem for years, really, but even during this online year, I didn't feel like I got the demonstrations where I wanted them to be. I use a video playlist showing the basic techniques, including how to create visible coils, how to smooth the coils, how to adjust the shape or add "appendages" and showing examples of finished pieces.

A screenshot of the first part of the coil building directions for my online class.

I give the students some options as far as how they watch these demos and also include examples of finished work and some links to alternate ways of using coils. I have the students practice using coils and in the second week include some more advanced techniques for changing the shape, burnishing, and other techniques they might want to explore.

A screenshot of the top of my Tips & Troubleshooting page for my online class.

This spring, I added a troubleshooting page with tips and suggestions, including illlustrations, to try to help students work through the kinds of problems students often run into. This troubleshooting page is an attempt to capture some of the things that would be discussed in class. The format certainly isn't as nice as what would happen organically during class, when I would be able to show students a fix (or an error) in their own work, but I think it was helpful. I created one of these Tips & Troubleshooting pages for each of the building techniques we learned in the online class.

Some of the images in the Tips & Troubleshooting page for coils.

So this problem has been percolating for some time, but it wasn't until classes ended that I came up with a possible solution. Instagram was my inspiration, in fact.  Lots of makers on Instagram show their process using time lapse videos. Just the other week I watched a comparison video where the artist contrasted how fast the technique seems in the time-lapse with how slow the technique is in the regular speed video. 

The textures was applied using sprigs, and a variety of ball styluses. I have a small bisque mold for the sprigs. I use a scoring tool and brush to attach them and smooth their edges with a couple of rubber tip tools, followed by three sizes of ball stylus.

My problem is precisely that: if I were to record the videos in real time, they'd be tediously boring.  Coil building feels fast when I'm doing it, but that's because I enjoy it and I usually am listening to an interesting audiobook while I build. But watching me build with coils, I think that would feel akin to watching paint dry. I don't think it would be reasonable to expect students to literally watch hours of video to see me work through a sculpture from start to finish.

The texture combines old and new. I've had this gear sprig for years, but the large ball stylus is new and I'm trying it out here.

The timing of the videos has actually been a problem from both the watching and the making perspective. I've created videos in my home studio before, but because my camera is my phone and my audiobook player is my phone (and I don't have the rights to record audio anyway), I have had to choose between the two. This year my daughter is old enough to have a phone of her own (and old one of mine actually) which I borrowed for the time lapse video. I was able to listen to my audiobook and simply set up her phone/camera on a tripod and go.

Periodically I seem to stop moving. I think that's when I'm pressing clay into my sprig mold. I press the clay in, scratch the back to score it, then it comes out pretty easily because the bisque mold has soaked in some of the moisture from the wet clay. I would make a bunch at once, then attach a group of them.

I haven't tested these with a studio audience yet, obviously, but I am hoping that these videos, in combination with the regular speed ones where I explain my techniques, can help the students to see the process from start to finish. I worked on this particular sculpture on 7 different ocassions on 5 different days. All seven videos ended up around 30 seconds long, but each time I worked for close to an hour. I don't understand the iPhone timelapse settings (or math, apparently) well enough to know exactly how long each session was, but let's call it seven hours plus drying time, for the whole sculpture. I did do maybe 15 minutes of touchup on the top after the last video, but that's the only time I worked on it with the video off.

I am impressed that I managed to keep my head out of the view as much as I did. I knew I was leaning my head or my arm in front of the camera, but with a complicated form like this, it's tough to get the texture applied evenly all the way around and under each piece. It's importntt not to rush, too, which I would have done if this were a real-time video. 

I think the videos ended up working well, at least on their own. For some reason I don't care to find out today, Blogger made them square, but they're normal proportions on YouTube where I've made them into a very short playlist. 

Here the inside of the coils is pretty visible again for a while. Though it is less important to fully smooth the inside of a sculpture no one can see inside of, I do try to smooth the inside seams to prevent cracking and strengthen those joins. 

Of course the nature of the form and surface means that a lot of the movements in the videos, especially the middle videos are pretty repetitive, but I didn't want to cut something out that might be of note. The start and end are obviously interesting, but I imagine that students would be interested to see how the twisting shapes are created and how tall I build before taking a break. All or nearly all of the breaks between videos were necessitated by the clay becoming too soft to continue working.

I had to pull the camera back to show the whole form, so there's a lot more me in this video than I'd prefer. A lot more facial expressions from me, too, alas. And if you look carefully, some extra young people in the room, too. 

In the last video, I was very nearly done, but I was also distracted because someone came into my studio to pester me, stick her hand in front of the camera and then shine a laser pointer at the sculpture. I'm not sure you can tell in the time lapse, but I was able to find her when I slowed down the video to check. It's amazing how different it feels to work alone in a studio than to work in a studio with someone who wants to surprise you.

The finished sculpture.

Watching the time lapse videos, it's also kind of astonishing how quickly the process seems to go. The build did feel fairly quick in real-life, but the texture took forever. To see it compressed into literal seconds is kind of fun, but also kind of exhausting; an hour of concentration and care reduced to less than a minute of frenetic movement! 

You can watch the entire playlist here if you like (or above if the embedded playlist will start working again--this is the second time since March that I've had trouble with embedded playlists--last time YouTube fixed it. This time I'm not sure if it's Blogger's fault). 

I'm really curious to hear what folks think about these time lapse video demos as pedagogical tools. Do you feel like you have a better understanding of how coil building works? Have you tried coil building? Did I do or include things you didn't already know about?  What would you want to see more/less of if you were using this to learn?  Is this too complicated a form to be useful?