First Project

Ciao a tutti, and welcome to my blog!

This past Monday I began the first project in my Beginning Ceramics class. The previous week I had visited il Museo Archeologico here in Florence to sketch interesting pieces that could be used as inspiration. Here is my sketch of the amphora--"amfora" in Italian--I selected to recreate (approximately) as my first real work in clay:

For our first project, the entire class is making coil pots using red clay extruded in long pieces by this machine. Coils can also be made by hand, but the process is much more difficult and time-consuming, so the thin snakes of clay formed by this machine are ideal for our class of beginners. It was actually much harder to turn the clay-extruding crank than I had anticipated...

Progress on my mini-amphora went very slowly this first lesson. First, a flat piece of clay trimmed into a circle became my base. Then, instead of making one continuous coil, I opted to make one ring at a time from the extruded clay and stack it on top of the previous loop. 

I then joined the two rings together with slurry (a mix of water and clay used as glue), making sure to score each piece of clay with the sharp end of a tool, and then smoothing the edges together. I tried to be very thorough as I joined my coils together, careful to prevent air bubbles from forming in any of the joints--expanding air bubbles can explode in the kiln and destroy a pot as it is fired. Initially, the slurry I created to join my coils together was too wet and could have weakened my base. A word of advice and the use of a sponge to absorb some of the excess moisture quickly got me back on track. Work continued without event for the rest of the period...

Tools of the trade.

Later this week I will have the opportunity to go back to the studio during open hours and continue to build the walls of the amphora. At a later point in time, I will use separate pieces of clay to form and attach a base, two handles, and the faces at the base of each handle. Until then, wish me good luck and great patience!