SPEC 35
Making Pottery on the Potter's Wheel Winter 2019
Division I
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

Learning to form pottery shapes with your hands on the potter’s wheel is challenging but accessible to any student who invests time and effort. This is a very old-fashioned skill–archaeologists tell us potter’s wheel skills were widespread in world culture by 3000 BCE. YouTube videos will not help you to learn the subtle hand positions and pressures needed to succeed in shaping symmetrical pleasing forms. A teacher/coach will help you understand and learn these skills, but it is up to you to apply yourself with repeated practice, patience and persistence. Each class will begin with an explanatory demonstration followed by student practice on the potter’s wheel. Woven into pottery making demonstrations will be presentations, in response to student interest, on various topics relating to the science and history of pottery making. Every student will have exclusive use of a potter’s wheel for each class. Pottery making classes will be held in the mornings, 9 AM to 12:00 PM, at Oak Bluffs Cottage Pottery in Pownal, Vermont. We will use both stoneware and porcelain clay bodies, and will work on mugs, bowls, pitchers, plates, jars, lids, vases, and bottles, and will finish these shapes by trimming and adding handles, lugs, lids, spouts, and knobs. We will also work on hand-building projects. Early in the Winter Study Session there will be a 1.5-hour slide presentation held one afternoon at a location on campus. After the tenth pottery making class meeting, all completed work will be kiln-fired to biscuit, approximately 1750F. The eleventh meeting will be devoted to glazing your biscuited pieces. Glazing techniques will include pouring, dipping, layering, brushing, and stamping, and using wax resist and other masking techniques to develop pattern and design. The completed work will then be glaze-fired to cone 5, approximately 2150F. The last meeting, held at Oak Bluffs Cottage Pottery early in the new semester, will be devoted to a “final project positive-orientation critique” in the studio of your finished work. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Ray Bub is a ceramic artist and teacher at Oak Bluffs Cottage Pottery in Pownal, Vermont, 10 minutes north of the Williams College campus. All class meetings except the slide show take place at Oak Bluffs Cottage Pottery. Learn more about Ray Bub at www.raybub.com
The Class: Format: mornings, 9am-12pm; plus 1 afternoon powerpoint slide presentation, and 1 final 1-hour critique session early in the spring semester at times to be arranged
Limit: 9
Grading: pass/fail only
Requirements/Evaluation: attendance at all class sessions and enthusiasm for learning the craft of pottery making
Prerequisites: none
Enrollment Preferences: discretion of the instructor
Materials/Lab Fee: $385
Distributions: Division I
Attributes: EXPE Experiential Education Courses

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