So, as I said I would, here is Part II of my ceramics work! I really wish I had time to glaze or stain them, but alas, time did not permit.

First, here is my Pre-Columbian inspired work:

It’s weird how all the imperfections got baked right on, and stuck.

Here it is from another angle:

To make it, I made the base from slab, made coils, then connected a LARGE pinch-pot to the coils. I made this one in a rush, since I had a deadline to meet–I was really surprised that the coils did not collapse, since I had them going outwards.

This is my WHALE! Completed this time! I am incredibly proud of this whale. =) It was constructed through sculpting. To lighten it and speed up drying, the innards were removed (hence the decapitated image in the last series).

Again:

Again! =)

This is the last piece I made:

Again:

Final:

Actually, I made one more thing..I made it before I made this one–it was a tile-press mold (so basically, I created a tile from clay, then poured plaster of Paris on it, waited for it to settle/harden, and then removed the clay. Then, I can make as many tiles that look exactly the same by rolling clay over the mold!).  Perhaps I’ll post a sample tile some time.  =)

Hi hi!
So I’m really excited about the work I’ve done in ceramics. Here are a few pictures of the things I’ve made!

Ok, so there’s some stories behind this bird…this was not the bird I made originally–it became to brittle and “leather-hard” and so when it fell off of a pedestal-like thing, it shattered. So this is the second bird. Well, I had planned on an owl (see the eyes); but it seems to have evolved (oooh, the word of controversy) into part penguin..and then the colors, part parrot. Who knows! Ok, then the ridiculous part of the story. Take a look at the bird–notice its tail? So, after glazing the bird, I aligned it so the beak was in the same direction as the stomach–correctly aligned. Well, someone turned its head after putting it in the kiln, so the head was fused on backwards. It looked REALLY awkward (tail in the front..X_x). Luckily, it was fused in a really small part, so after a little sawing with a nail file, it was fixed and properly aligned as seen above..=)

I don’t really know what happened to the color of the leaves..I guess they were lacking nutrition or something..teehee, or I guess I didn’t do a good job dipping the free coils into the glaze..

Ok, call me a UBER NERD! Fine with me! My inspiration was the mitochondrion in the textbooks–you know, they’re usually blue colored..and then those little lines could be cristae..the black oozing is more like volcanic-ooze, but I thought it’d look nice–this is my favorite piece thus far, by the way. I would have liked my tree better, but the colors…This one actually turned out EXACTLY the way I wanted it to; so I’m reaaaally happy.

Oatmeal! Mom’s brekkie.
Here are pictures of an incomplete one taken in the middle of class (Xanga advantage! No sneak previews elsewhere..oh what a privilege, lol):

Before you gawk at it in disgust (or too late?), I had to cut it in half.  The way the animal sculptures are constructed are: first you sculpt it, then you cut it in some way so that you can hollow it out–otherwise the clay would be too thick/heavy, and the clay has to be dry before firing, so it’d take forever!  Hence the cutting.  Sadly, there was a little delight in cutting the whale–but more sorrow since it looked so nice before cutting it.  However, after hollowing it out, I fused it back together, so no worries!  Pictures will be posted after it is fired.. I don’t know if I’ll have time to glaze it..hopefully!! !!