Art Club: Making a Coil Plate

My dilemma on whether I should start this project with my students 🤷. As we only have three sessions for this term. The interval between the second and the last session will be five weeks apart. Although their unfinished projects are usually kept in ziplock bags, they are not entirely airtight. I will still need to open the bags every few days and mist the artwork to keep them moist. But I thought it will be nice if I squeeze in a new technique. After some deliberation, I decided to go ahead and see what happens. The risk is that some of the clay might be too dry to work and they need to redo from scratch. Another possibility is that I'm overzealous in misting the artwork and they will be too wet to work with. 😕 

I usually start by showing them the entire process with a time lapse video so I can focus on explaining while pausing the video. I think it's hard to use the visualiser with my dust-coated hands. The projection is also clearer with the video than the live document camera. Stay tune to my update in my next post!

Art Club: Opening the kiln

It's coming to the end of term 3 and the children's ceramics work are fresh off the kiln! There is a lot of anticipation when it comes to ceramics class. In every step of the process, nothing is guaranteed. Things could happen during firing that resulted in failure of pieces which could only be thrown away (so far, nothing like that yet) or it's not even your fault but because the pieces are placed close together, you can't prevent an accident, just cause and effect. 

In every lesson, the children learnt from other children's work and we discussed about the good, bad and ugly. Everyone need to work together to make the lesson happen. The glazes doesn't fill themselves up. Someone has to wedge the recycle clay and ensure it's kept and mist properly. Someone has to plan the schedule to fire and reload the kiln. So, they need to know the work behind the scenes that they won't need to do and all teachers ask for is that they bring a good attitude to class and enjoy. 

Art Club: Recycling Clay

How do you recycle the leftover clay from previous classes? In our class, the children place their remaining clay pieces into a black bag and I pour some water to soften the clay. After accumulating them for a few sessions, they would be soft to knead and wedge. Wedging the clay would prepare it ready for use by eliminating air bubbles and ensure a consistent texture. They would be packed into balls of clay right into the black bag again, sprinkled with some water to maintain moisture. 

Art Club: Ceramics

It's really difficult not to like ceramics. The process of manipulating the clay is so calming and holding onto a fired piece, weeks after visualising it in the mind's eye is so gratifying. It helps the children to practise delayed gratification as there's no fast forward button. Just waiting for the clay to dry before bisque firing takes at least a week. 

A few days before the class, I would add a small amount of water to the bag of 'fresh' clay to soften them and make ready to use. As beginners, the children started with making pinch pots. It's the foundation as it doesn't require any tools besides their hands. At this stage, they need to learn by feeling and knowing when the clay gets too dry/ wet. They need to constantly evaluate their pieces to prevent them from getting too thin or thick. For example, the rim of a cup has to be smooth otherwise a sharp edge can cut the lips. Sometimes, it's necessary to restart the whole process when the clay is beyond salvage. They need to know how to create a flat base so that it can be stable and perhaps functional. Art materials are finite so I told the children that any pieces that are deemed unsuitable would be recycled. 

Glazes are magical. The colours turned vibrant after firing. In its raw form, they are a mixture of powder and water. The children to apply three layers of glazes onto the bisque-fired clay in order to achieve an even coat. Before I send them to the kiln, there is a need to check that the base of each ceramics pieces is glaze free. 

There's always anticipation whenever I open the kiln. The children's hard work would have gone down the drain even if I have a have tiny air bubble lodged in one of the clay pieces while firing and an explosion would cause other pieces in close proximity to be damaged too. Thus, there needs to be a longer drying time when the clay pieces get bigger. 

Art Club: Learning from the Pro

Sharpening my pottery skills with two other teachers in school every Friday afternoon. We even had a lesson with a Ceramist, Mr Chua, in his studio. Soon, we'll be able to fire our students' work on our own.

Careful attachment of different parts of a cup or motifs in a piece is crucial, otherwise, this initial step would lead to wasted effort and time in the end. 

Trimming is essential in making pots. It removes excess clay and unnecessary weight in a piece. It also smoothens the surface evenly quite quickly. Usually done when the clay is leather hard, a term used to describe clay that has some moisture but not too wet or dry for this step. The removed clay are noodle-like and I don't have to exert too much pressure. But when it is bone dry, the removed clay would be powder-like and brittle.

Before you judge us for this abused kiln shelf, our role now is more of a custodian for these properties. We learnt to use batt wash to protect this shelf and to prevent further degeneration. Troubleshooting is one of the things high on my list. We can do everything as we were taught but certain circumstances would require one's thinking to be out of the box. For example, teaching children and adults are vastly different. The characters with whom we are interacting every day have different learning needs. Much more if they require special attention. We need to think of the learners' movement and placement of supplies. We need to place the materials in accessible places and delegate roles to the children so that they can take some responsibilities for their learning. Throughout the learning, there are bound to be teachable moments, peer feedback and exploration. These implicit or hidden curricula are often unsaid or hardly replicated by others. 

Photo credit: Aznani

While I have taken ceramics classes before and the procedural steps are similar, what was missing in my previous experience is that the teachers aren't glaze chemist or connoisseur. However, with more learning in theoretical areas such as explanation in Chemistry and listening to someone learned in terms of depth and breadth is few. As a teacher to younger charges, the teacher has to always be the one adapting to the learners whereas, for adult learners, we are the ones adapting to our teachers, be it in communication or mannerism. I could still produce decent pieces despite the different instructions. I know given time, resources and a will to do better, we can improve our skills. So, when Mr Chua leaves, we would be fending for ourselves but I know he will only be a phone call away! :D