Megan's Art

I have finished all of my projects in class, they are all glazed and on the shelf ready to be bisqued! I will upload pictures on tuesday when they come out of the kiln. In the end I decided to glaze them all the same color (italian straw with tomato red painted over the top to make orange). This way I can use them all at home together and they can go together along with my teapot I made earlier this year. It has been a great semester in ceramics and I hope to take some sort of ceramics class in college if not next semester. It has been one of my favorite classes throughout highschool!

I have been super busy over the past couple weeks finishing up all of my projects, now my last five are out of the kiln so I need to glaze them all, still deciding on what I'm going to do for each; if im going to do a separate glaze for each project or all the same so they all tie together and I can use them as a set at home, I will check in later this week.

My theme for my work this semester is transformation. I chose this theme because it showcases the changes and progression of my work over the semester. Since the beginning of the year my work has gotten a lot better because I have learned new throwing and glazing techniques and also because I have had a lot more practice.

                My portfolio consists of tons of different projects like plates, bowls, mugs and even a teapot. My work at the beginning of the year was mainly smaller projects like plates and bowls and mugs but as the year has gone on I have started making more complex things on the wheel like my teapot and lidded projects. I have also gotten better at glazing because I have learned how to mix glazes to get different colors as well as which glazes go together best.

                One of my best projects to date is my teapot. I took a really long time to make it but it turned out really well. I made each part of the project on a separate day, bagged them each after I made them and once they were all finished put them together as one project. I threw the lid, spout, and body of the teapot on the wheel and pulled my handles for both the lid and the teapot. It was generally easy to put everything together, just time consuming with all the slipping and scoring. After my project was bisqued I glazed it. I painted the entire thing with ochre yellow glaze and then went over the lid with tomato red and then painted the lip of the spout and the indent on the handle with tomato red to tie the two pieces together. I think I learned a lot from this project because I spent so much time making sure I did all the steps correctly.

                I chose my theme because it is easy to understand. You see my theme and look at my work and you can automatically understand that my theme is transformation because I want my viewers to notice the progression of my work throughout the semester. My work has transformed from simple to complex pieces because not only have I started spending more time on each piece I make, but I am also adding more details to them both on the wheel and in the glaze room. As the year goes on I have also gotten more comfortable with throwing larger pieces on the wheel so I have more large pieces in my portfolio now than I did at the beginning of the year.

                My portfolio displays the transformation of my artwork not only over the past semester, but also since I began taking ceramics two years ago. I have become so much more skilled over the past two and a half years of taking the class and I have my work to show it. I have gained skills and knowledge that has made me a better artist and ceramicist which allow me to create complex and beautiful pieces on the wheel that I would have never expected to be able to create when I started taking the class.