Ceramic Arts Commons^™

Finding The Perfect Purple: An Exploration Of Glaze Making And Chemical Safety In The Pottery Studio, Kara Eppard, Michael Hough

ASPIRE 2024

This project was undertaken as an IDS-100H course linkage between ceramics and chemistry. Through time spent reviewing literature and time in the studio, a project was developed that allowed the application of technical skills of each discipline in a creative fashion. The creative focus of the project was to find a suitable purple glaze to utilize on a previously thrown pottery collection. During the project techniques in glaze making were explored. Over 25 glazes were tested, and two firing techniques were explored. Additionally, safety within the pottery studio was increased through aspects such as the development of an MSDS, and …

Silhouette, Andy Bissonnette

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

As a potter, I am deeply interested in the union between form, surface, and function. I believe these elements are intrinsically connected and the most successful pots are able to balance all three in a way that is both aesthetically pleasing and practical. From the proportional relationship between the foot and rim, to the way a glaze breaks or pools across an articulated surface, each detail is crafted with intention and care. Silhouette is a metaphor for how I conceptualize and conceive each of my pieces. It’s a way to explore form through both an aesthetic and practical approach. My …

Developing A Local Clay Body: Augusta County, Virginia, Olivia Heeb

Honors Projects

Several samples of raw clay from Augusta County, Virginia were analyzed, and one was chosen to develop into a clay body that could successfully be thrown on the wheel, fired, and made into functional ware. The characteristics of plasticity, strength, absorption, and glaze effects were important when deciding what materials to add to the raw clay samples. Issues included low plasticity when throwing, cracking while drying, warping when firing, and pinholing in the glaze fire. A recipe was developed that worked well for the chosen clay, found in a roadside in Craigsville, Virginia.

Between And Beyond, Noah F. Heil

Art and Art History Honors Projects

Between and Beyond is a series of handbuilt and wheel-thrown ceramic objects which explore intimate queer relationships through the human figure. I assemble slabs of clay to create openings and negative spaces within the sculptures, implying the ways in which the human form also acts as a vessel. The sculptures as well as the figures themselves remain open and vulnerable, literally and metaphorically. The body is depicted through fragmented sections, alluding to the ways in which society and culture break up gender and sexuality into limiting binaries. These intimate, private moments are meant to conjure an imagined future free of …

Entangled, Katherine Cox

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

I create objects to incite wonder through their exuberance, inviting one to explore the beauty found in the strange and offering the viewer a way to interact with the discomfort of the unknown. Mysculptures are an assembly of engaging surfaces and forms revealing varying texturesandvibrant colors referencing natural and fabricated worlds. Each sculpture is entangled within its own environment or narrative and each is adorned for its own role, finding a balance between discord and harmony, captivation and repulsion.

Each is an individual exploration of the distinct qualities inherent within each object. They are precious in scale and stimulate …

Chasing The Craze: When The Right Variables Are Off-Stage, Tina M. Gebhart

Art and Art History Faculty Publications

A smooth white glaze, (Figure 1) with a buttery surface and smooth breaking on edges, just enough change of whiteness in a crevice pooling, seemingly opaque when thicker, but with a certain glow, a slight grey showing through. It crazes slightly, a fine webbing of cracks. Not enough to be decorative crazing, and not enough crazing to make me abandon the glaze, but enough crazing that I would like it to be gone. I prefer a system-oriented testing approach as a kind of universal order. A simple Unity Molecular Formula grid mapping method typically shows a boundary line of crazed …

Techno File: Pyrometric Cones, Tina M. Gebhart

Art and Art History Faculty Publications

A pyrometer measures temperature, but pyrometric cones measure heatwork. What is a cone, how does it work, and what does any of this have to do with synchronized swimmers? [excerpt]

Techno File: Glaze Unity Formula, Tina M. Gebhart

Art and Art History Faculty Publications

There are many approaches to modifying a glaze recipe, and different approaches can meet different needs. Some modifications change the colorant level while others change the colorant type altogether. Some may directly replace one material with another add a few weight unit more (or less) of one of the base ingredients in the recipe, or add an amount of an entirely new ingredient. These strategies we use to alter glazes tent to parallel how we cook and modify recipes in the kitchen, but adjustments to the base glaze using the kitchen method do not always give us the results we …