Coil + Pinch Pots
We began the semester of Ceramics I by building up two basic skills — pinch pots and coil pots.
After some creativity explorations to start our semester, we worked through the process of creating u-shaped pinch pots, then o-shaped pinch pots, and learned how to add feet onto our pots using score-and-spray methods. Students underglazed their leather-hard u pinch pots and created sgraffito designs on them, carving the colored layer away to reveal the clay underneath.
We then embarked on coil pots, learning to roll coils and gathering inspiration for our designs before starting our vessels. Most students started with a slab base, but a few challenged themselves to create a pinch pot for the base.
These were super fun introductions to one another through clay! These projects helped me gauge students’ abilities in clay, and their personalities also began to emerge as we progressed through the projects. I was very impressed by how well the students managed their time and clay with the coil pots, making sure that nothing dried out too quickly. The finished projects were as varied and interesting as the students that made them!
