Blog Post #9

Artists organize & develop artistic ideas:

Creating sketches and brainstorming ideas for the types of vessels to make came a lot from inspiration from the Greek techniques that we saw in class. During class we saw a lot of different examples of the Greek vessels, how they were used in that time period, and the style type that sparked out the most to me was the kind that had a wide base and a skinny neck. Making my sketch into a template was really difficult because it was all about proportioning the design. I started by finding the middle of the sketch I drew on the grid, and then working my way up and down the pot by drawing a bunch of different lines until it looked how I wanted it to. Then I cut out the template and made sure I kept the piece of cardboard that is on the exterior of the pot. Once I cut out the template I traced it into my notebook and then adjusted the other side until it was as wide as I wanted and sketched the full 2-D pot on a page. Then I used a glaze container to trace out the base on a slab. Throughout the building process of the pot, the main difficulty was having all aspects of the pot symmetrical around the whole thing. To fix the proportions of the pot, I used a flat edge scraper to reshape the walls, so it would match up with the template. To fix the issue of having a lop-sided vessel I used a banding wheel also. Using a banding wheel is very helpful because you can make sure you are being precise with all the sides, and nothing becomes uneven throughout the building process.

Artists develop & refine their art-making techniques:

To create my vessel form, I am using the process of coil building. This is very different then building a coil bowl because the template takes a lot of work to make plus as you build the pot it is really difficult to make sure everything aligns up correctly with the template. The base is made out of a slab, which I was very used to making. But the coils are still very challenging because all the walls have to be even, and the connections have to be very strong and secure throughout the whole creation. This is building upon my past skills because we never used a template to follow while making a vessel. The templates are very cool to use because you can add your own design to it, but is also very difficult. To make sure my pot is smooth and even I am going to use slip and a rubber rib to smooth out the whole surface and make sure the walls are not bumpy. Using a flat edge scraper helps to change the shape of the vessel in case the template does not add up to the pot precisely.