Date of Award

6-2012

Document Type

Union College Only

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Visual Arts

First Advisor

Chris Duncan

Second Advisor

Nancy Niefield

Language

English

Keywords

ceramics, coil, kiln, glaze, pot, wheel

Abstract

I have had a passion for ceramics ever since I was very little which I then rediscovered senior year in high school. As I reached Union and started taking ceramics classes again I was able to further explore this medium at a much higher level. I discovered after some time that I felt more in control making hand built pieces rather than throwing on the wheel. I enjoyed the imperfect look of these pots as I could see the human mistakes all worked in. As I better explored my hand building skills I made my first coil pot which was about a foot in height. Ever since this first pot I made I wanted to keep coiling. I was driven to make hand built coil vessels reaching heights of six feet tall. This project allowed me to test my skills and challenged me to figure out how to create a six foot coil pot with only a two foot kiln to fire them in. Since the kiln was a third of the size of my pieces I had to build individual sections of each vessel and then connect them together by stacking each piece on top of each other on steel bases. As I constructed each vessel I had an idea of how I wanted each piece to look, but as hand building in clay is imperfect the vessels took on unplanned shapes of their own. This naturally imperfect look, “the human flaw,” is coiled into each vessel. Each vessel embodies a different size and shape but all share the coiled construction. I intended for each pieces to speak as its own with a variety of profiles- round or square, curvy, straight or skinny. To tie all of these different shapes together I decided to glaze them all similar colors. I chose a strong deep maroon and darker glazes to show depth. This glaze reminds me of Union’s unique garnet color. These pieces will remind me of a closing to a wonderful experience here at Union.

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