Coil Construction

                My first coil construction was made to symbolize a mother butterfly and tiny butterflies always staying by her side. The first thing I did was construct the bottom piece with a slab. I drew out the shape I wanted to construct, and then I cut it out with the metal tool. After that, I made coils by hand and kept putting them on top of each other using slip. As I went higher, the coils got smaller. This is because I wanted the top to be smaller than the base. When I was happy with the height, I started to blend the inside and out with the circular edge of the wooden tool. Then I decided that I wanted to make
tiny butterflies. First I made a slab using the slab machine then I cut out variations of butterfly sizes. When I was done with how much butterflies I wanted, I cut each butterfly in the middle to make it have a 3-D effect. Then I started pasting them on my coil construction using slip on the surface and on the butterfly pieces. I did this with all the butterflies, then I was done. All I had to do was correct any bumps
on my final piece.

This is my favorite piece out of everything I created. The way I glazed this piece was using brushes. For the base of the piece I used one coat of blue green. For the butterflies I used a combination of yellow, peach, misty blue, and maroon. It came out perfect. And ofcourse I waxed the bottom.

Double Pinch Pot

        After learning how to construct a pinch pot, we later learned how to put two pieces together. When I finished making both pinch pots alike, I put them together by brushing on slip with a toothbrush on both tops of the pots then I placed them together by squeezing each tip so that it is equally aligned. Next, I used a wooden tool to blend the outside so that the pieces will go together. After I was done with that, I used my fingers along with water to make the pinch pots tips vanish so that it will look like one piece. To blend the insides, I opened the top piece from its foot with a metal tool and used my hands to open it wide enough so that I could blend the insides. To decorate the piece I constructed tiny coils and place them on the piece by putting slip on both the pot and the coils. I made the coils on the piece to symbolize vines and flowers. Some of the flowers look like leaves because it was a little tricky to make them big enough. When I was finished I made the surfaces smooth.





The technique I used to glaze this piece was the dipping and pouring. First I waxed the foot of the piece. Then I used basic white to pour inside then I shook it and spilled the leftovers back in the container. Next I dip the whole piece in the glaze then immediately wiped off the parts where I wanted to glaze it a different color. For the flowers I used magenta and the vines I used satin green. I glazed these using a brush.  

My First Pinchpot

In my AR 216 Ceramics class, I constructed my first pinch
pot. It was a little
tricky at the start of my construction because I started all over and I did not know what I
wanted out of my pot. Then I kept working and once I learned the technique to bring
together clay that I pinched too far out, I decided I wanted to make my pot symbolize the
Marianas while composing the figure of the round shape used by the Chamorro's, the
waves of the oceans that surround it, the stand to symbolize the coconut trees, and the
circles to symbolize small islands around the CNMI. I used marbles to stamp little holes
and sprigging to create the waves for my finished top.

 After my pinch-pot was fired, I glazed it with a glossy black and basic white color. First I waxed that bottom to prevent the paint from sticking to the kiln when it is fired. Next, I started to glaze the overall color, which is glossy black, using strictly brushes because I wanted an even coat. I put about two coats of black and one coat of basic white in the dots. I love the outcome!