|
Syllabus BEGINNING CERAMICS This course is designed to be an introduction to the ceramic medium and process. TECHNICAL: The basic chemical and practical explanation of the behavior of clay, glazes, and kilns will be explained largely through lectures. We will spend most of the time with high fire stoneware materials. We will also do some work with other techniques such as Raku. CLAY-FORMING: Throwing: The potter's wheel is an ancient and basic tool for forming clay into container shapes. We will be working on the wheel throughout the semester making mugs, bowls, pitchers, and bottles. By the end of the semester you should be able to make containers of modest size with some skill. There will also be assignments using techniques and tools other than the wheel. These techniques are collectively known as hand building. CLASS STRUCTURE: Lectures and demonstrations are presented during the first hour and a half. The remaining period will usually be open for individual work and consultation. Clean up will begin at 3:30. The class will clean their wheels the tables and the sinks before class is dismissed. We will spend the first two weeks of class learning basic clay forming techniques (mostly throwing) before attempting an assignment. Thereafter, assignments will be made at regular intervals that are increasingly more challenging. The time allotted for each assignment will vary from one day to two weeks depending on the technical difficulty of the problem. The ceramic process requires some time to get through drying, bisque firing, glazing, and glaze firing. We will stop making new objects about a week or so before the end of class to allow time for work to be finished. Cost:
GRADING Projects will be evaluated at mid term and final critiques that are scheduled individually. Keep in mind that grading of studio work is necessarily a subjective process however the following points will give you an idea of the criteria I have in mind and their relative importance in determining a grade: Generally I will be looking for evidence of involvement with the problems and the quality of solutions. Workmanship refers to the technical skill needed to express an idea. My evaluation of your work at the mid term critique will focus on these skills: Throwing skills is the work heavy?; how big?; is the shape controlled?; Are the foot and the rim finished? Are there cracks? Glazing skills are the glazes applied thickly enough to develop their color or too thick so the ran in firing?; are they applied evenly? Additionally there are many other craft issues both traditional, such as handle making, or those you may invent that will be evaluated. In the ceramic process, problems of aesthetics and design
are inseparable from the craft techniques that express them.
A well crafted work by itself does not constitute a work of art.
At the final critique I will be interested how you have applied
your craft skills to problems of design. I will be interested
in evidence of original thinking and an awareness of the possibilities
of the medium. Time, effort and participation: Approximately 25% of your grade. Much of your work will be accomplished in class however to develop the skills necessary to produce quality work will require time outside of class. I will usually ask you to make three versions of a particular assignment. If you make only three it is likely that you will have succeeded at only a rudimentary level. It is advisable to allow time to work outside of class so that you can use the three best examples for your assignment. Sometimes we will be making work that has to be dried to a "leather hard" state before it can be finished. This means coming into the studio to cover and uncover work to control drying and to finish work that has been done earlier. You should plan on spending at minimum, four hours a week outside of class. To some extent the quantity of work you produce will be regarded as a measure of the time and effort you have expended. Attendance: If you have athletic, living unit or other schedule conflicts that will force you to miss or leave early, you should not enroll in this class. More than three absences during the semester will be considered excessive. Although I will not grade individual assignments we will often have class critiques on the due date of an assignment. You are expected to have your work finished for the critique and participate in the discussion. The art department will schedule a number of guest speakers throughout the semester known as "punch card events". You are asked to attend at least four of these events. You will be asked to check in at these events to verify your attendance. Your attendance at co-curricular events will be assumed attendance will not raise your grade but failure to attend will lower your grade by as much as half a point. TEST: There will be a final exam covering the technical side of ceramics (this material is largely drawn from lectures) Approximately 10% of grade. The exam will be a combination of short answer, multiple choice and true/false questions. In general I hold to these principles in regard to grades: If a student attends class, turns in all of the assignments and makes a reasonable effort to understand and execute the assignments they will have earned at least a C. The average grade for the class as a whole will be a B-. There will probably be no more than about 3 As. Effort alone will not be enough to earn an A. For an A grade I must see evidence of genuine insight and imagination about both imagery and process.
|
|
Advanced Ceramics Fall 99 The class will meet on Tuesday. and Friday. from 1:00 to 4:00 Class structure: We will use a class organization similar to your experience with Beginning Ceramics with assignments, due dates and critiques for the first half of the semester and then revert to a more informal, independent structure to finish the semester. Assignments will be a mix of advanced clay forming projects (both throwing and hand building), glaze formulation and kiln firing. Technical: Your assignments this semester will be larger in scale and more complex. You will need to perfect your throwing with a view to developing a more consistent technique you will need to be able to make thrown forms that are larger and do it faster. You should also review your notes on clay, glazes and kilns as we will be experimenting with ways to alter clay and glaze formulas and be more attentive to what happens during the firing process. You will formulate and mix our own clay bodies and participate in the loading and firing of kilns. Grading: Mid term and Final critique with criteria the same as with your beginning class. I do not plan to give you an exam over the technical material but I will be paying attention to whether you seem to understand what is going on with the technical questions we deal with. Projects: Raku and porcelain: Toward the end of last semester I did some experiments with glazes (mainly the colorants) that resulted in several smooth bright colors that were a little strong for the earthy nature of stoneware but have a lot of potential for porcelain. I would like to spend the first part of the course setting up some experiments with porcelain bodies and glazes. Once the first round of porcelain tests have been prepared we will turn to the problem of designing and building a larger and more efficient Raku kiln. We will begin reading a chapter on porcelain from Daniel Rhodes book "Stoneware and Porcelain" to become familiar with the technical context of this material. We will also discuss the history of porcelain in an outline form to develop a sense of the traditions associated with it. We will begin making our own work by mixing a batch of porcelain based on a standard formula and then do some experiments by making some variations of that formula. We will also prepare some test tiles for experiments with glazes. Since porcelain is generally suited to smaller objects we will work on a series of container forms of various kinds small lidded boxes, larger lidded forms such as canisters, casseroles and teapots. In the last portion of the course we will take on a larger project possibly a dinner set. |