Final Week

All of the glazed pieces of mine from the last two firings. 

Making pots for the background set of the movie they're shooting at OCAC! This was really exciting. Apparently, the studio looked a little empty, and so somebody working for the movie asked Dale if they could 'hire' some people to make pots that they can set up in the studio, to make it look more like a real studio space. So, I got to sit down for two hours and throw all of these pieces. It was a really interesting and in a way liberating experience to throw all of these pieces, knowing that I wouldn't be keeping any of them. I was able to try out some forms that I hadn't tried before and didn't have to be as perfectionist about little smudges on the pots or other small imperfections, because they'd only show up in the background of a scene. 

Raku firing at work. 

Here's me brushing kiln wash onto these kiln posts, which makes it so that the kiln posts don't get stuck on the kiln shelves when you unload a kiln. 

All the newly 'painted' kiln posts. Dale and I made this little wooden guard railing to go on the sides of this cart so that whenever you rolled it around, these kiln posts wouldn't fall off!

Here's me grinding the bottom of one of my pots to smoothen it out, after the glaze ran a bit in the firing and chipped at the bottom. 

Dale and I recycled clay several times during my senior project, and here's Dale cutting off a section of the clay coming out of the pug mill, which we then afterward bagged up in bags of two of these cut sections. 

    Going into this project, I wanted to feel much more comfortable throwing pots than I was at the start, I wanted to "produce" a lot more work, and I wanted to better understand everything that went into a ceramics studio than I did beforehand. Looking back at the past four or so weeks, I feel really happy with all that I've been able to accomplish and learn. I feel much more comfortable working with clay, and also feel much more knowledgeable about how a studio space functions. My time working with Dale at OCAC has led me to feel much more connected to pottery because I can now look at a piece of pottery and better understand all of the work that went into creating that piece. From mixing the clay from scratch to pulling something out of a freshly fired glaze kiln, I now feel like I understand the process so much better than I did before this project. To anybody else who'd like to work in a studio space for their senior project in the future, I could not recommend this any more!!! Throughout the past month, I've gained so much more of an appreciation for the behind-the-scenes workings of such a beautiful art form as ceramics. Without everything I've recently learned, I don't think I'd be able to carry the same form of appreciation for ceramics and all the work that goes into it as I do now.