Syllabus

COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVE:

Hand-building and wheel-throwing in clay offers endless sculptural opportunities. This course is an introduction to the methods, vocabulary, and technical information involved with hand building and glazing ceramics sculpture. A variety of techniques will be explored including pinching, slab formation, coil building, basic wheel-throwing, incision, draping, glazing and staining. Students will be encouraged to use skills and knowledge about working in clay to discover and develop a personal, artistic language.

Drawing will be used as a way to make preparatory plans and to brainstorm solutions for problems that arise while creating a sculpture. Students will learn to balance planning for each assignment while remaining responsive to discoveries made during the process of creating piece. The assignments will be supplemented by constant experimentation in form building and glazing. In addition to studio time, the course will include slide presentations, reading assignments, class discussions, and museum trips.

COURSEWORK:

 1. Series of class projects supplemented by regular experimentation. Early projects focus on learning basic hand building techniques. Later projects focus on choosing appropriate techniques to create more complex sculptural forms.             

             The assignments are as follows:

                       1. test tiles                        (pinch pot)                                                                                            

                        2. slab construction  and coil construction

                        3. wheel-altered form OR form using the extruder
                        4. series based on source

2. Homework assignments.

3. Choose an artist on the ceramic artists list that has an asterix by the name. Sign up for presentation date on classroom door.

4. Required museum trips (Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Harvard Museum of Natural History).

5. Class discussions and critiques.

6. Sketchbook. This will serve as a repository for ideas and images that will become source material for projects. Planning information will include

            one side:                      -notes on lectures, techniques, assignments

                                                -glazing and firing notes documenting experiments

            reverse side:                -sketches planning for projects

                                                -sketches and photos of resources

            Take thorough and accurate notes on all of your glaze test tiles.

6. Maintenance of clay and equipment in room.

OPTIONAL ADDITIONAL COURSEWORK: (This is especially encouraged for students with little background in contemporary sculpture.)

Your visual resources shouldn’t be limited to ceramic forms. Visit additional museums and other sources such as parks, the aquarium, zoos, Peabody Essex Museum, Harvard Art Museums, ICA,  and Boston Society of Arts and Crafts. In addition to the ceramic artist list, I will give you a list of contemporary sculptors. Looking up artists’ work from this list is a helpful way to learn more about the ideas and issues explored in contemporary sculpture.

Read read read. I have a selection of books on hold in the Visual Arts Library. Go to libraries and look at sculpture and ceramics books. Look through magazines such as Sculpture, Art in America, Art News, etc… You are also welcome to do any additional experimentation with the materials and equipment (including the wheels) in the room.

EXPECTATIONS:

1. Investment of 12 hours of work per week which breaks down to 6 hours of  class work and 6 hours of independent work. The amount of progress you make is directly proportional to the amount of time you invest in the class.

2. Participation in class discussions and critiques. This is a crucial part of a studio course for several reasons. Finding the words to interpret, describe, and critique form reinforces your learning experiences gained through sculpting.  It also expands your vocabulary in art, which will in turn help you to develop a dialogue with your own sculptures as you work. Additionally, your insights can raise ideas and observations that your classmates have not already thought of. In this way, each individual can enrich the learning experience of others.

In order to increase your comfort level in this new situation, we will further discuss the format of class critiques before the first one takes place.

3. ATTENDANCE.  Progress in sculpture, as in all areas of the visual arts, is only achieved through active practice. The presence of each and every class member working hard can also create an exciting, energetic, and positive working environment. For these reasons, it is fundamentally important that students arrive on time, attend every class for the full time allotted, come equipped with necessary working tools and materials, and participate in class assignments and discussions. This cannot be stressed enough.

Arriving 30 minutes or more late, as well as leaving class early, will be counted as ½ an absence. An accumulation of late arrivals will also adversely affect your grade.

Three unexcused absences will reduce your final letter grade by half a letter grade.

University attendance policy states that absences in excess of  a quarter or the total class sections qualifies for failure of the course. Sickness, family emergencies, etc… will be excused. Please let me know when you have a valid excuse for a missed class!

Full attendance includes bringing necessary tools and materials to class.

4. Safety.  Sculpture is an active class. You are expected to come properly dressed in work clothes. When using power tools, please wear proper eye protection and remove any jewelry or clothes that drape.

You are always expected to clean up after yourselves. This includes wiping down work surfaces, vacuuming dust, and putting away tools and materials. Not only is it easier to work in a clean studio, but it is also safer for your health to do so. Clay dust and many of the substances used to make glazes are toxic. For this reason, NO FOOD OR DRINKS ARE ALLOWED IN THE CLASSROOM! Even if a mess isn’t yours, please clean it up!

5. No cell phones allowed during class time unless an emergency.

6. The course materials fee of $55, paid in the Visual Arts Office, should be paid within the first two weeks of the semester. This will cover the cost of clay and glazes. If you choose to work on an unusually large size project, you will be required to pay for additional clay.

7. It takes many days, even weeks to go through all clay pottery and sculpture

processes (soft clay to final glaze firing). You must be patient and plan well

ahead so there is enough time to fire your work and meet deadlines.

GRADING:

Grading will be based on:

1. 33%: thoughtfulness, thoroughness and ambition

2. 33%: fulfillment of class and homework assignments and adherence to due dates

3. 33%: class attendance and participation

Homework and class assignments are expected to be complete, well-crafted, ambitious, inventive, and thoughtfully presented on the due dates. Class critiques will be held midway through each class project and also at the conclusion of each class project and homework assignment. Adherence to due dates is essential in order to have constructive critiques. Any late assignments will have the grade reduced accordingly.

As long time and thought is invested into an assignment and the original deadline is met, students can continue to work on any assignment until the end of the semester.

In addition to the quality and completion of assignments, grades will be calculated based on attendance, participation in class discussions, effort, level of seriousness, and progress. Grades for each assignment will be weighed according to the magnitude of the project.

MATERIALS:

permanent marker to label tools with your name (everyone’s tools look the same!)

** dust mask (buy one level up from the cheap one, replace as needed) **

basic pottery tool kit (including wire loop tools, wooden modeling tools, wire cutter, flexible rib, wooden rib, sponge, and pin tool)

large plastic bags (i.e. kitchen garbage bags)

straight edge

thin palette knife

1 pair rubber kitchen gloves and/or latex gloves (at least 50)

at least 3 natural bristle brushes for glazing(1/2 “, 1”  and assorted sizes and types)

baster (from grocery store)

old toothbrush

water spray bottle (can buy from CVS)

various tools for decoration and relief embellishment

9” x 12” sketchbook (solely for this class)

optional:          additional shaping tools if needed

                        sand paper                                           apron  

                        you can order your own LOW-FIRE pre-mixed glazes

                        potter knives

                        exacto knife with additional replaceable blades (or potters knife)

           

You can buy most of these supplies from any local art store. I googled ceramics supplies and came up with many options of places to order tools online. You are welcome to explore using any other hand tools or non-toxic glazes

I order basic supplies from a local pottery supply store:  portlandpottery.com.

Recommended texts:

Electric Kiln Ceramics, Richard Zakin. Fabulous text book describing types of clay, glazes, and glaze application. Great images of examples. Amazon.com has a reduced cost for this book.

Making Pottery Without a Wheel, Carlton Ball and Janice Lovoos. Wide array of texture and form making examples. Used copies online starting from $3.

Ceramics, Glenn C. Nelson.

The Ceramics Bible, Louisa Taylor.

The Craft and Art of Clay,  Susan Peterson and Jon Peterson.