Week 1 Research, Reflection and Goals
Research: Before starting, I wanted to look through some of the books I got from the library and see if any clay or glaze recipes stuck out to me that I wanted to try first. I started with The Potter’s Studio Clay & Glaze Handbook, which turned out to encompass much more than I thought it would. In addition to clay and glazes, it also discusses how to set up a studio that that works sensibly. One of the things that the book mentions is to arrange your studio in a way that “follows the clay” and makes workflow efficient and logical; the diagram the book provides has been copied and is shown below.
The book then goes into detail about each of these areas, describing in more detail how to effectively maximize the space. One note that I think UC’s ceramic studio could benefit from is to have shelving that is the same height as the kilns to store kiln shelves on; these shelves are heavy, and at UC we store them on the floor which is a lot of extra moving of the heavy shelves. Another note I think is important to remember is to use tables and workbenches on wheels; pottery is delicate, and having carts or other storage pieces on wheels can make moving multiple pieces at one time easier and less prone to breaking. The book also gives a detailed list of necessities to have in a studio, which I skipped over since I don’t have my own studio at this point. A potter’s essentials include six different kinds of ribs; I have three of those six, so will make it a point to get the other three over the summer and into the beginning of the school year to begin implementing in my work. The full list is provided below, with checkmarks next to the items that I have.
• Half oval rib
• Right angle curved rib
Rectangular rib
• Half moon rib
Long stick rib
Flat stick rib
• Sponge on a stick
• Needle tools
• Sponges
• Metal trim tools
• Wooden forming tools
• Wire cut off tools
The book then moves on to talk about the nature of clay, which I decided to skip over for now. I also skipped over the clay body formulas because I wasn’t sure what kind of clay the local potter I am working with uses and figured I would come back to the recipes in the next couple weeks. There is also a section that describes different tests for characteristics of clay that I would definitely like to try. When I got to the glaze section of this handbook, it was much different than I had expected; I assumed that it would list reliable glaze recipes that I could use, but instead it was more about characteristics of glazes and how to make adjustments to glazes to make it behave a certain way. Like with clay, this section gave different tests that could be performed on various glaze recipes. The section also goes into detail about different glaze techniques (3 in total), all of which I regularly use. One section that I think will be extremely helpful in the coming weeks at the local studio, during fall semester, and going forward was a section called “Troubleshooting Glazes”; basically, it listed the problem that could cause each undesired effect and how to resolve it. Over 25 potential problems and their subsequent effects were listed, so I feel that in the future any glaze issue I have I will be able to troubleshoot and effectively correct. The next section of the same book goes into detail about what happens during the firing of the kiln, which I found to be really helpful in understanding how things happen during the firing process. It also goes into detail about different firing methods, only two of which I have done before (oxidation and reduction). Also listed were ways to change the color of the clay and special glaze effects, none of which I had done before but all of which looked interesting and were techniques I would like to attempt in the following weeks. The last section of the book discusses going into the ceramics business, which I skipped for now and decided to read closer to the end of my ten week project when I was preparing to create an Etsy shop for my ceramics. At the end of the book, I found a small section on clay and glaze recipes and made note of a few I wanted to try in the coming weeks.
Goals for the upcoming week: Make sure that each piece is centered both when throwing and when trimming.
The book then goes into detail about each of these areas, describing in more detail how to effectively maximize the space. One note that I think UC’s ceramic studio could benefit from is to have shelving that is the same height as the kilns to store kiln shelves on; these shelves are heavy, and at UC we store them on the floor which is a lot of extra moving of the heavy shelves. Another note I think is important to remember is to use tables and workbenches on wheels; pottery is delicate, and having carts or other storage pieces on wheels can make moving multiple pieces at one time easier and less prone to breaking. The book also gives a detailed list of necessities to have in a studio, which I skipped over since I don’t have my own studio at this point. A potter’s essentials include six different kinds of ribs; I have three of those six, so will make it a point to get the other three over the summer and into the beginning of the school year to begin implementing in my work. The full list is provided below, with checkmarks next to the items that I have.
• Half oval rib
• Right angle curved rib
Rectangular rib
• Half moon rib
Long stick rib
Flat stick rib
• Sponge on a stick
• Needle tools
• Sponges
• Metal trim tools
• Wooden forming tools
• Wire cut off tools
The book then moves on to talk about the nature of clay, which I decided to skip over for now. I also skipped over the clay body formulas because I wasn’t sure what kind of clay the local potter I am working with uses and figured I would come back to the recipes in the next couple weeks. There is also a section that describes different tests for characteristics of clay that I would definitely like to try. When I got to the glaze section of this handbook, it was much different than I had expected; I assumed that it would list reliable glaze recipes that I could use, but instead it was more about characteristics of glazes and how to make adjustments to glazes to make it behave a certain way. Like with clay, this section gave different tests that could be performed on various glaze recipes. The section also goes into detail about different glaze techniques (3 in total), all of which I regularly use. One section that I think will be extremely helpful in the coming weeks at the local studio, during fall semester, and going forward was a section called “Troubleshooting Glazes”; basically, it listed the problem that could cause each undesired effect and how to resolve it. Over 25 potential problems and their subsequent effects were listed, so I feel that in the future any glaze issue I have I will be able to troubleshoot and effectively correct. The next section of the same book goes into detail about what happens during the firing of the kiln, which I found to be really helpful in understanding how things happen during the firing process. It also goes into detail about different firing methods, only two of which I have done before (oxidation and reduction). Also listed were ways to change the color of the clay and special glaze effects, none of which I had done before but all of which looked interesting and were techniques I would like to attempt in the following weeks. The last section of the book discusses going into the ceramics business, which I skipped for now and decided to read closer to the end of my ten week project when I was preparing to create an Etsy shop for my ceramics. At the end of the book, I found a small section on clay and glaze recipes and made note of a few I wanted to try in the coming weeks.
Goals for the upcoming week: Make sure that each piece is centered both when throwing and when trimming.