vidhipanditceramicsclay3

[vidhipanditceramicsclay3]

Here is my cube. I made two other parts but I ended up not liking either one so I made this one and I finally like. So while making this cube, I changed a couple things in the process and I think they had a pretty big impact on the final product. So I spent a lot more time on this piece, carefully drying each side thoroughly between putting them together, and making sure to straighten each side before I moved on. I observe that this piece is smoother than my other two as well as a better shape. 

[vidhipanditceramicsclay3]

This is the first part of my Narrative Project. I have made two parts of my trio. The first is a small cube, and I cut the pieces out of a slab. Each side was 4 cm by 4cm. I like how the cube turned out, it looks uniform and just how I expected. However, the box is a different story. I made each side 8cm by 8cm, but it doesn’t look as sharp as I hoped and doesn't have that uniformity I expected from the cube. I also think the piece as a whole would look more cohesive if they fit better together, so I plan on making another box which is smaller and tweaking a couple things. So basically, my piece is based on the healthcare system, and each box represents a different category of people with different healthcare, and the smallest box being those who are uninsured. The boxes symbolize the system, and the fact that those who suffer without healthcare are hidden by a majority who do have some type coverage. The piece fails to acknowledge the nuances of America’s broken healthcare system but is an adequate representation of the basic impacts of the system and how those who are not so fortunate to have basic necessities suffer. 

[vidhipanditceramicsclay3]

This wash county clay was very different from what we usually work with. The wash country clay has a very different texture, it is more gritty and more wet. However, even though the clay is more wet, it barks easily and is very fragile even when it should be at its peak moldability. Making pinch pots out of it was relatively difficult because even though we were keeping the pots smaller, they constantly cracks and required a lot more care than our regular clay would need. The clay was fragile, easily breakable, and felt dry even when it was wet more than enough. This clay most likely isn’t something you’d want to work with to make intricate pieces because its difficult to get past the point where the clay isn't cracking and you would have to constantly be fixing cracks instead of working to further the piece which would waste a lot of time. Next, for the shrinkage test, we cut out 2 by 6 inch pieces from clay and drew a 10 cm line down the middle. It was the same size after bone dry, but when it was fired it shrunk quite a bit, becoming around 5.5 inches and less than 2 inches long. The cut in the middle was also smaller, measuring to about 9 inches. The strips of clay weren't warped at all though, they were flat even after firing and she shape hadn’t changed at all. Although our first few pots and strips survived the first firing, the pieces that were highbred completely melted. And interestingly enough they returned to the dark gray color that it had when the clay was wet, instead of the orange color after the first firing. 

[vidhipanditceramicsclay3]

This is my plan for my flask. I plan on using a few different pieces cut out of a thicker slab so that the piece will hold itself up. I have to measure each piece so that it fits well with the rest of the peices. For some of the pieces like the front and back and two sides, I have to cut out two identical pieces. But, I only need one of the top and the bottom. I will also need to slightly dry the sides with a blow dryer because they will be staying straight up without any support and if the clay is too soft, it won't stay upright. This piece is geometric and to ensure that I am making a similar piece to my reference I have to go through a few more steps than I would if I was trying to make an organic piece. This is because this piece has to be cut very specifically and precisely. I don't currently have any plans for the surface design but I would like to incorporate the original artist’s sgraffito but I could also choose my own design. 

[vidhipanditceramicsclay3]

This is my Flask. I used slabs and coils to make the body and cut out a hole at the top for the opening. The lid is a spherical piece and has a small piece of clay wrapped around the bottom to fit into the hole. This piece is symmetrical in the shape but it was incredibly challenging to get the slabs to sit at the proper angle at which they were both leaning toward each other at the same angle. Because of this the piece is slightly lopsided which I attempted to fix but ultimately couldn't because I had already secured them in place with coils. I think that I prefer making geometric pieces rather than organic pieces because I have more control and more of an opportunity to go back and fix things. 

[vidhipanditceramicsclay3]

This is the final post of my first pot. See, I didn’t think it would end up actually looking good but I surprisingly don’t despise it. I finished off my piece with a blue glaze as close to the color I saw in the original pots. The surface design features both geometric and organic shapes which work together to cover the entire pot. The design is for the most part symmetric because the same design wraps around the pot and the main face design is geometric. This piece makes me happy because it it good and not bad like I very much expected it to be. 

[vidhipanditceramicsclay3]

So here's my coil pot and its going good kind of but not really. But basically, I spent one trillion bajillion years rolling out coils and it was quite the wild ride. So basically, I find myself to be lacking in the coil building department, but somehow I made it happen while making this literal 15 pound pot. I did in fact have a difficult time replicating the shape of my inspiration and my pot ended up barely resembling the shape that I wanted it to have but its the thought that counts. I came a lot closer to mastering my coil rolling technique and after trying out multiple different methods, I settled on rolling out the coils with my eyes closed so that I wouldn't change pressure depending on the look of the the coil, and I would be rolling according to what I thought it would need depending on how it felt. The pot building process was just me rolling and stacking and scoring and slipping, nothing interesting if I’m being completely honest. This pot has an organic shape, balance for the most part as the shape is uniform throughout. The pot is neither top or bottom heavy, I would say it is middle heavy if that’s even a thing. This piece makes me sad because it isn’t really the best thing I've ever seen in my entire life, but I don’t really know what I expected because I despise the coil pot vibe with my entire being. However, from an outside point of view this pot could be something that would make a person happy but I'm not too sure about that. Basically, my pot is a work of art and weighs more than a small child

[vidhipanditceramicsclay3]

This is the first step of my reference piece. This piece is inspired by the apothecary jars made by Guntia de Tugio. The plan for this piece is a pinch pot base which I have already made and coils to shape the body of the jar. Personally, I’m not the biggest fan of using coils in my work because I find them difficult but I decided to challenge myself while making this piece. Ive already attached two coils to the base pinch pot and will continue to add more which should change the jar in terms of shape as I move up. 

[vidhipanditceramicsclay3]

This is the second and last phase of my seed pod. First, I cut a hole in the spherical shape I had made and used two small, flattened pieces of clay to somewhat fill in the hole, creating a kind of cave sort of thing. Then, I picked a small piece of clay from my mound and rolled each one into a small raindrop sort of shape and fit it in the hole; this resembles a seed. I spent the longest time filling up the hole with these little pieces of clay until it was complete. Then I tried to add texture but eventually decided that any kind of complex texture with busy patterns would clash with the seeds and ended up adding a simpler texture of lines along the side of the pod. 

[vidhipanditceramicsclay3]

This is the first step of my seed pod piece. I started by taking two chunks of clay and making some pinch pots. Then, I slipped and scored them and put them together, using a coil to cover up the seam in order to make it look like a flat sphere. I then got it extremely wet and rolled it around in my hands to make it as round and as smooth as possible. Once I was satisfied with the shape and smoothness, I set it down and scored the entire surface to make sure that any small bumps and holes were filled, completing my last step of smoothing the piece. The shape transformed from a very round sphere to a shape which was flat on one side and slightly narrower at the other end. I plan on adding texture to the surface as well as cutting out a chunk from the side for my seeds. 

[vidhipanditceramicsclay3]

These are my two bowls that I made on the wheel this week. Some difficulties I encountered while making these were things like getting the clay to stick on the wheel. I fixed this by smacking it on where I wanted it to be really hard so it wouldn’t move. Also, I made sure that there was just the right amount of water on the wheel before I started throwing. Something else I found difficult was centering my ball of clay. G Brow helped me with that one. I don't really exactly know how to do that yet. But I like how they turned out and they are cool. That is it for now, Batman OUT!

[vidhipanditceramicsclay3]

This is the second post about my six sided jar. Some difficulties I came across while crafting my jar was the fact that it kept cracking. I was working on this over a long period of time and it got dry a lot. I added a lot of slip throughout this process to hopefully seal the cracks and sprayed lots of water on in. Overall, I took a lot of time smoothing piece it together as it kept cracking, but I finally finished.

[vidhipanditceramicsclay3]

This is the first phase of my geometric pot. To make this, we first cut out templates for the main body of the pot, the lid and the feet. Then we made slabs large enough to cut out the template in one piece. Then we cut out the shape of the star into our slabs. One problem we encountered while making this  was making slabs large enough to cut out the shape into the slab. We went back and forth between making slabs, measuring the size, and adding more clay to increase the surface area. 

[vidhipanditceramicsclay3]

10 posts!

[vidhipanditceramicsclay3]

This is my completed mini coil pot featuring Brandon’s lovely face. Nota Bene: Don’t let his alluring eyeball distract you from the main attraction which is my coil pot. Overall, I think that my coil pot turned out pretty good. It was hard to make but the final product reflects the amount of work I put in. However, one thing that did not come out how I wanted was the coil inside the lid. First, it fell off during the first glaze. The I couldn’t figure out how to fit it back on the lid so it would fit as a lid. Lastly, I glued it on and it wouldn’t fit so I sanded it and It fit on a little better. Next time, I will carefully make sure that the lid fits the bottom of the pot very well. 

[vidhipanditceramicsclay3]

This is my origami cat. I painted it gray. It looks like a cat. To make the cat, I cut out one hexagonal slab. Then I connected two triangular slabs to the large main slab and laid two other slabs on top to mimic the folds. This work tells the story of being a cat folded out of paper but made with clay and not folded at all. I have gotten better at this work because my cat didn't break like my bird did into two pieces. The tools I used when making this was a slab and a knife and a rib and a bowl and some water and that's it. 

[vidhipanditceramicsclay3]

This is my first origami animal. Unfortunately it broke at the wing and then I dropped it and it broke even more. However, this is supposed to represent a crane bird with only one wing. The inspiration of this piece was an origami bird that I found in the box and I tried to recreate the folded paper with ceramics. I used the rolling pin to make a very thin slab then cut out the shape of the body. The I cut out the wing shape which was connected underneath the body and left a space between the wings to fold them under the body. Overall, this was a pretty simple piece to recreate.