Intro to Ceramics

I took an introductory ceramics class--Ceramics Fundamentals 216. I am NOT a ceramics artist by any means, but I did enjoy the class, for the most part, because I got to play with clay! Ceramics is very different from my other art classes because you really can't procrastinate. You have to plan time to make an item, time to let it dry, firing time, glaze time, time for another firing, and maybe even another firing if it didn't turn out the way you wanted it.

So here's the first assignment. We had to make a sphere, cylinder, and a cone. Then we sliced them and put them together in some abstract way. Then we did a Raku glaze and firing, which was pretty fun. That's why it has such funky colors.
The second assignment was to make some man-made objects and play with different glazes. I made a computer mouse, paper clip (of sorts), and a cell phone. This was a lot of fun!


The third assignment was to make organic objects, in preparation for the final. I did a flower pod, that is not very interesting. And I made the leaves off the top of a pineapple.
The final assignment had to be 20 inches in one direction. Mine turned into a large vase of sorts. It was supposed to be like the bottom (fruit) part of a pineapple. I think it turned out pretty good considering I had no idea how it would turn out. There was some reduction that occurred in the kiln, so the inside was supposed to be bright yellow (like the inside of a pineapple) but instead turned a green color. Random, but it works! May I suggest making a vase of this size on a wheel? We didn't use the wheel at all in the class, that's in the 300 level class.