My Awesome Hand-builders Part 4

student work drying before the last firing
 

This is the fourth post I've written about my hand-building class. My throwing class this quarter is also great, but I was able to write these hand-building posts in a batch, and I haven't done theirs yet. If you haven't seen them yet, go back and check out the previous three posts about the hand-building print, coil, slab, and extruded projects, as well as their solid portraits.

Lego Minifig by Jordan Golob, printed from multiple pieces on the 3D printer

Coming soon, I'll share some work from the throwing class and glazed and finished work from both classes which finished up last week.

Pegasus by Thunder Morales

The hand-builders had their critique on Monday. It was lots of fun to see their finished, or in some cases nearly finished work. The hand-builders are required to glaze 4 of their 5 projects and they can paint the other one.

Works drying in the studio before the last firing

In our studio this quarter, students were able to fire their work with high fire (cone 10) glazes in a reduction or oxidation atmosphere. They could also low fire their work with underglazes and clear glaze at cone 04, or they could raku, horsehair raku, or pit fire their work.

3D printed shelves by Derek Arneecher

This quarter no one chose to pit fire, but several student did raku. In the hand-building class, I think all the students who raku fired their work used horse hair instead of glaze. One student didn't like the results and ended up using underglaze and low fire glazes over the top.

Slab castle by Manuel Delgado

I suspect that the timing at the end of the quarter impacted how students chose to finish their work. It's a balance, in a 10 week class, to make sure that students start glazing early enough to learn the glazes and get all their work done, without taking time away from their building projects.

extruded and altered piece by Brooke Mason

I usually introduce glazing around week 5, and force them to glaze something then. I make them glaze early so that we can run a kiln load and they can see their results before glazing the rest of their work. During his final critique, one student described the process as me rushing him to glaze his first pieces so we could load a kiln. I suppose it is true, but he also was glazing his last pieces during the last few hours of allowed glazing time last week, which makes me think that it is good that I didn't let him skip that first firing.

Coil form by Manuel Delgado

In a shared studio, with 35 students making anywhere between 8 and 60+ objects in a quarter, that's a lot of stuff to fit in a kiln, especially when the lower numbers correlate with larger projects.

Teapot with facial features by Carlos Garcia Alcantar

Most of the hand-builders created 5 scultptures, a mug, and 2-4 pinch bowls for practicing glazing. Some students made multiple objects for one project, including a set of dice, several lidded boxes, or a group of printed forms that were mean't to be shown or stacked together. 

Carlos decorated his coil teapot with a nose, eyes, and mouth, as well as spout and handle.

Some students also created extra pieces. I know of one extra mug, one extra portrait, one extra coil piece, and an extra printed object. Carlos created his coil teapot because he wasn't sure his coil built duck was going to work out. It did and his duck is delightful, but his teapot is also idiosyncratic and great fun.

Rotting pumpkin by Jordan Golob

The quality of the work in this quarter's class was really quite impressive. Not everything worked perfectly, but I think all of the students completed all of the building projects, which maybe sounds normal, but I often have students who just never get the work done and end up skipping a project or the project just breaks.

Kraken, partially glazed, by Brooke Mason

The only piece that broke beyond repair before critique was dropped as it was being loaded into the kiln. Unfortuantely the student didn't get a picture, but luckilly I had seen it before it went in the kiln. 

Lidded slab bathtub by Thai See 

We did have several pieces that broke before, during, or after firing. Maybe I'm making excuses, but I figure some level of breakage and repair is ok in a hand-building class. I build in an epoxy demo into the class calendar and expect that a few students will be using it at the end of the quarter. 

Thai @Thaiidraws on Instagram scared me with those delicated feet

I don't remember an epoxy demo as a standard thing in my first ceramic class, but I definintely do remember learning to use epoxy from my ceramics instructor in undergrad. Since I use epoxy regularly by design in my mixed media work, it makes sense to build it into the class. Also, I figure, if it's good enough for Beth Cavener, it's good enough for my students!

The lady and her knee are the handles to pick up the lid of this lovely bathtub

This year several students did their repairs before class. I love to see that because then I feel that we really see the finished sculpture at critique. There was even one sculpture with hair epoxied in place for critique.

Jordan Golob created this teapot (betcha didn't guess it was a teapot)

Final critiques were finished on Wednesday. We had one more kiln we needed to fire, but all that was done by Friday. I don't have class again until January, but I've felt like returning from the cancer break, as well as the pandemic interruption, meant that this quarter's classes, while pretty great in terms of output, had a few hiccups as far as the online expectations and I'd like to make some adjustments over the break.

She was inspired by a teapot by Ray Bub, but really moved in a different direction as she began to work. 

Of course, I'm probably always making adjustments over the break, so maybe the breaks have less to do with it and it's just how I teach. My colleague was on sabbatical this fall, but last week, there he was in his office, prepping classes for next quarter, because they're always a work-in-progress for us.