The Digital Media Art program I am enrolled in at EOU requires several art classes, including Design, photography, sculpture, and ceramics. I am taking ceramics this term, and our first project was to build a coil pot. Remember making long “snakes” out of playdough and coiling them on top of themselves to make a pot shape? We used the same technique to build our pots, and as we built them, we smoothed both the inside and outside surfaces.
The process we followed was pretty simple, but the project itself was not.
We didn’t just get to start building a pot and make it any shape we wanted to; however, we were required to look up Japanese and Chinese pots from 6000 BC, take measurements of the photocopies we made, and convert them to measurements that corresponded with a 14″ tall pot. Then we had to attempt to duplicate the pot using the measurements we came up with.
My finished pot ended up being a little off from the original drawing, but it turned out pretty accurate. The pot I used as an inspiration had a more squished “belly” and a little hooked foot opposite of the handle side, but my professor did not require me to add the foot.
Once our pots reached “leather hardness”, we used different tools to score and carve designs on the outsides of our pots, replicating the designs from the original pots.
I am not super thrilled with the way the designs turned out on my pot, but it serves the purpose. Our pots are drying now, and once they are dry, we will fire and stain them. I’m excited to see what my pot ends up looking like once it is completed.
Nature Girl. Mom. Wife. Friend. Photographer. Sewer. Crafter. Artist.
To borrow a phrase – “Yeet Ye Riche”