The anticipation, the exhilaration, the nervousness, the moment of truth…all build as we await the opening of a kiln after the glaze firing. After weeks of clay construction, a bisque firing, and glazing the ceramic projects to fire once again, my students can barely contain their excitement to finally hold the finished pieces in their hands. Ceramics is the art of trial and error and there is nothing more mysterious than the result of how an artist's glaze combinations will react under the pressure of hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit.
The journey to their final product is an accumulation of studio habits developed over time. My students draw thumbnail sketches of how they envision the end result of their work when first beginning to build their clay projects so that they have a clear idea of what it's going to look like and which glaze choices they plan to use when fired. They can change their drafts at any point over the course of the unit, but they begin with a solid idea to implement.
The nature of glaze is very different from paint and students learn about its properties when faced with the blank canvas of bisqueware. As they brush on coats of glaze, colors can be blended together as each layer dries. There is an element of experimentation with how the glaze colors will react with each other when fired.
The glaze is brushed on directly from pint-sized containers but there is only one jar of each color available at a time. To keep the studio environment friendly with COVID-19 safety precautions, students used sanitizing wipes to clean their glaze containers and tools and stored their works in-progress on countertops labeled for their personal use apart from others. I made a habit of calling students by tables to pick up their supplies from the "teacher zone" to minimize the crowded foot traffic around the equipment station.
While the glazing guidelines are detailed, the process of brushing on glaze can be very therapeutic. There is a sense of relief that your clay project made it successfully through its first firing and has become a ceramic work of art. The glazing stage is like completing the final stretch of a race and crossing the finish line to celebrate with a victory dance. As students glaze their completed ceramic pieces, they laugh and talk with each other while bobbing their heads to music. The mood is light and lively as they get lost in the art-making zone.
Students take care not to contaminate the glaze by allowing each layer to dry completely before painting on another color. They also wipe down the base for a clean surface so that the glaze doesn't fuse to the kiln shelves.
When their work is finished and they have made their final touches on craftsmanship, students are asked to write an artist statement reflecting on their process and explaining their intent.
I love reading their statements because it gives greater insight into what they found most meaningful with the artistic process and how they assess their artwork through self-reflection. Displaying artwork with written statements also gives students ownership over how they will present their final pieces in the gallery.
It is exciting to see ceramic pieces transform when the glaze is fired...
I want my students to not only learn the stages of clay and hand-building techniques, but also develop confidence to experiment with creative risks and take ownership over their artistic process.
Ceramics can feel like an endurance art form, but it builds character traits such as patience, resilience, problem-solving, ingenuity, and pride. It is one of my favorite mediums to teach because it brings out the most interesting surprises from my students and teaches them to persevere over the long haul instead of expecting immediate success.
“Ever tried? Ever failed? Nevermind, try again and fail better.”
-Martin Mcwilliam, Potter (1957-Present)
Comments