Conclusion

My thoughts about the week

 

On my first day during the introduction when I was told that we were going to be creating portrait sculptures I was quite worried because I had no experience with clay and had no idea how I would be able to successfully produce a head. However I found that step by step you manage to build a model and before you know it you have completed a whole sculpture. I found that during the process it took every bit of concentration I had, and at times I found myself really stressed, taking hours to complete one section to make it just how I wanted it to be, and sometimes you work on one area so much that you start to drift away from how it is really meant to look. I was quite surprised at how naturally it came to me and not finding it as hard as I thought it would be, creating someone's face, purely from a slab of clay is amazing and made me want to keep creating new ones. As soon as I had finished my model I wanted to start on a second one and improve and keep doing things differently and trying different facial features and expressions. Portrait ceramics is something that I would definitely like to do again and is something that you can get lost in for hours and days.  I thought it was a truly inspirational experience and I felt that I learned a huge amount in just five days and feel I will definitely give it another go soon.  

Coiling technique

 

Coiling Technique

 

 

As part of the course we were taught some ceramics techniques, one of which being the coiling technique. Coiling has been around for thousands of years, ranging from Africa, Greece, China and New Mexico. Coiling is a traditional pottery technique that is used to create pottery ceramics by building layers of clay. During the course we had the option to create a second portrait sculpture or to create a bowl.  I chose to create a small bowl because I wanted experience in using coiling techniques. Jackie came over and gave me a tutorial and demonstration on how to make a small pot/bowl.  When watching Jackie, I thought the process seemed quite quick and easy but when putting it into practice myself, I found it was more difficult than it seemed. I started off with a straight forward pot with no curves to it, but once I had managed to get the technique right, I made two other pots that ranged in shape and size. To create a coiled pot, you simply make a small circular slab of clay (depending on how big you want your pot to be), you use this slab of clay as a base which you then apply layers of coils to. Coils are long thin rolls of clay which you can make slightly bigger or smaller with each layer to change and alter the shape of your pot. Jackie taught me that when applying the coils on top of each other, never to start them off at the same point around the circle, otherwise you will find that one side of the pot will dip more than the other, and by starting each coil at a different point, it will even out the shape of the pot.

 

 

 

These photos show the three coiled pots that I made during the last day, I thought that making the pots would be the easier part of the course but I actually found it hard to create the shapes and sizes I had in mind, with the time allocated.



The stand!

The stand

 

 

Many people prefer different types of stands to hold their portraits up, and there are a few different ways in which you can do so. You can create a box like shape and place the sculpture flat on the base, you can build into the sculpture itself and create a square base from the shoulders or the neck of the figure, you can also use poles to stand the portrait up, in fact many people use a different material to make the base for their sculpture, including wood, stone and metal. However during the course we were taught how to make different bases using clay.


Here are some photos showing the different types of bases you can use.











Many people in the class chose different methods to create their stand; I chose to create a clay box and include a metal pole to raise the head slightly. I chose this method because I thought that it would make the sculpture look more independent and focus the attention more towards the head rather than to the stand.
During the demonstration on how to begin our stands, I learnt that the box would in fact be hollow instead of being a solid block of clay. You start off by rolling out the clay into large slabs, there are two ways that you can carry out this process, the first is using large polling pins and rolling out the clay yourself, the second is using the slab roller. Many people use rolling pins because they are far cheaper and take up much less room than a slab roller, however slab rollers come in very useful when using large quantities of clay. I chose to roll out my clay using the slab roller because I wanted to make enough slabs quickly and easily in case I needed to start again.

Here is a picture of what the rolled out slab of clay looked like.

You can make your box into whatever shape or size you like. Taking into account the size and weight of your sculpture, your box needs to be big enough to support the head.
I chose to make my box into a symmetrical cube so that my sculpture would be evenly supported.
There is no specific way to cut out the sides of your box, many people cut the sides out from observation and trim them down once they are stuck down, whereas some people measure the sides out with a ruler to be safe.
I started off with cutting out a base for the bottom of the box and then five more sides to complete the box.

It's easer to create the box when the clay has hardened, this way when you place a side onto the base of the box, the side is less likely to fall over. To make sure your clay is dry enough you usually leave the large slab of clay to dry out slightly over night.
To attach each side to the base of the box you start by cross hatching the edges to each individual piece, including the bottom piece. This creates more friction between the two edges, you also have to use a lot of slip on each edge. Once the side is stuck down to the base of the box you roll out small thin coils and place them along each seam, on the inside and the outside to make them more secure.

Continue this for each side of the box until you have a completed box shape. Once I had completed the box I then used a scraper to smooth down all the sides and neaten up the appearance of the box.
Because I wanted to include a metal pole through the centre of my box I found a small circular object and drew around it at the centre point of my stand and used a knife to cut out the circle, this left a hole in the centre of the box, so that I could put a metal pole through to elevate the head from the box. However this process would have to be done after the box and the head had been fired.
I found this process one of the easer things to do throughout the course and that it didn't take me much time to complete at all even though this is actually one aspect that I enjoyed, I liked the simplicity of making the stand and felt a sense of satisfaction from making a perfectly square cube.


The making of my sculpture

The process!

 

 

After the demonstration from Jackie we started making our own sculptures. A lot of people in the class had done portrait sculpture before and decided to do people they have done before to try and aim for perfection, whereas some people did babies and animals. I decided to do my mum because I am familiar with her facial features and thought it would be nice to have something personal I can keep for a long time.

 

I started by placing the newspaper around the wooden pole, I used a lot of tape because I felt that it helped hold the skull in place and made it easier to manipulate the shape. During this process I thought about the size and shape of my mums head, baring in mind the sculpture will shrink by 10% when fired. It also helped to look at a photograph of a skull to gauge where the jaw is.

This photograph shows the skull once I had completed the initial process. I made sure that the back of the skull was higher than the jaw bone and tried to add newspaper to where the cheek bones would be to create a more defined structure to work with. I was pleased with the way my skull turned out because I felt that it resembled a skull instead of just a ball, I then wrapped a plastic bag around the skull and tied it around the wooden pole to make it secure; this process took me around 15 minutes to complete when being precise.

 

 

 

When it came to putting the clay onto the skull I cut off a smaller slab of clay from the larger slab using the wire cut off tool, I curved and flattened the edges of the slab to make it easier to apply to the skull. Once I had covered the skull I felt that the layer was too thin and that I should have used thicker slabs to cover the skull. However I added more slabs of clay to the areas I felt where too thin, making sure to roll the clay on top of each other to avoid trapped air. I then beat the head with a wooden baton to release any air, and as you can see the neck has lengthened from the process.

 

 

 

I started adding to the face, marking out where the facial features should be and looking at my mums face to see how spread out her facial features are and looking at proportions.
I added coils of clay over the brow for the foundations of the eyebrows and to give the eye sockets more depth, also using my fingers to push the clay in to make the eye sockets. I first made a small triangle like shape for the nose and added it to the face, I felt that my mums nose was more like a long roman nose, so I added a thin long coil to the length of the nose and a small round ball to add to the end to give the nose length, using the wooden hand tools to create nostrils. I created a long thin oval shape to add as the mouth, to create body and volume which I could later work into.

 

 

 

My mum has quite high cheekbones so I decided to add clay to the cheek bones to make them more prominent, which you can see in this photo.  I also added coils to the jaw line to even up the proportion of the face and to evenly join down to the chin. I also felt that the neck was too thin, so to make the neck thicker I added 3 larger coils and worked them into the existing clay.

This photo also shows where I have made markings  for the ears.

 

 

 

 

When creating the eyes of my sculpture I started with making very small balls and placed them into the sockets using slip as a glue to secure them in place. Once the eyes balls where in place, I then made small thin coils to place around the eyeball to create upper and lower eyelids. During this process I looked at the shape of my mums eyes and the area around her eye to try and make it as similar as possible. I also added small pieces of clay beside the eyeball to make it more softer to look at, using the wooden hand tools to manipulate and shape the clay into the appropriate detail. Jackie came round and taught me certain techniques I could use with the hand tools to help with the detail.

 

 

 

This is a side view of the current process, you can see how I have shortened down the length of the nose and the beginning of life building up in the face. I found that when creating the sculpture I had to continuously look at my mums face and intensely observe her, even when we weren't in the lesson I couldn't help but stare at other peoples faces as well. I then started thinking about how I would go about creating their faces and everyone became a possible sculpture.  

 

 

 

 

EARS

On day two Jackie gave another demonstration on how to create ears for our portraiture, she explained that you start by making a small kidney shape of appropriate size and attach it to the head using slip and wooden hand tools to merge the clay together. Once the ear is attached you can use the loop hand tools to carve out the clay and create the detail of the ear.
I found that trying to create the kidney shape into the correct size was quite hard and it took a lot of practise to get the right shape; after a few attempts I was able to make the shape of the ear that I was happy with and used it as a template to create the other ear. I found that once the ear was attached it was easier to then add to the ear and take clay off the ear to make it exactly how you want it. During this process it is easy to make ears that are too big, so it helps to take a step back and look at your head from a distance and review the proportions. Once the ear is attached to the head and you have carved out your detail, you then make a long thin coil and place it behind the ear to give the ear more support and make it more secure so that the ear does not blow off in the kiln.

In this photo you can also see where I have drawn out the hair line in preparation for making hair.

 

 

 

 

HAIR

There are two different ways in which you can create hair, you can either add clay to the head or you can work into the head using tools. Sometimes you find that your head is quite thick so you can work into the head without breaking through it. However sometimes you may find that the thickness of your head is too thin and its best to add hair to the head separately. It also depends on what hair style you are trying to create. My mum always wears her hair up in a pony tail and I felt like it was a signature feature for my mum and wanted to keep that aspect of her. I decided that to make the hair I would try both techniques, adding clay to the head and working into the head using tools. I had already created a hair line and a parting down the middle of the head using the hand tools, from here I started at the hair line and made long thin coils, attaching them to the head using slip to stick them, otherwise they may have blown off in the kiln. Once I had attached a few coils next to each other, I then used the side of a hand tool and merged the sides of the coils together to create the effect of individual strands of hair leading down to the pony tail point.

In certain areas of the head I just used the hand tools to carry on the hair detail, however I found that I liked adding the clay separately to the head because I found it gave the hair better texture and volume.

 

 

 

Once I got down to the pony tail, I created a number of coils and lined them up on top of a larger coil that I was using as a hairband. I then curled the coil that I was using as the hairband to attach the hair securely, which then created a pony tail. To attach it to the head I used a lot of slip and held it to the head for a while until it stayed up on its own, as shown.

Once I had done this I then wanted to clean up the hair and soften it, I used hand tools to soften and tidy the ridges in the hair, giving it more structure.

 

 

 

 

DISMANTLEMENT

I then discovered that once we had nearly finished our heads, we had to cut part of the head off and cut out the paper skull, we had to do this otherwise the paper would burn inside the kiln.

During this process you have to think about how big your skull is and how much of the head you will have to cut off to get the paper skull out. When it came to cutting out the paper skull, I found that mine took a very long time because I had put so much tape around the skull. From this experience I would definitely have this in mind whenever I make another ceramic portraiture.

 

 Once the paper skull was out there were then a few steps I had to take before sticking the top of the head back on. Jackie explained that I should look at the thickness of the head and make sure that the layer of clay was even all the way around, this may either mean adding clay to the inside of your head, or taking some clay off the head. I felt that some of the head was too thin so I decided to add clay to the inside at the front, this process was delicate because when merging the two surfaces of the clay, it had a tendency to make the face itself bulge, so I had to be careful that I didn't break through the clay and ruin the face. At the back of the head the layer was quite thick so I used a loop tool to carve away some of the excess clay. I then placed the head onto a very large sponge, sometimes you may need to lay the head down to get to certain parts of the head, so you place the head onto a large sponge so that it doesn't crush any of the facial features on the face.
I placed my head onto a sponge so that I could carve some of the excess clay away from the neck, however I accidentally made a few holes in the neck, because of this I then had to attach some clay back on. This is why it is important to create even layers of clay at the very start of the process.
The final stage before sticking the top of the head back on was to use a 'Potters needle' to make small holes inside the head, making sure not to pierce all the way through the clay, the reason for this is so that any trapped air in the clay gets released before it goes in the kiln.

 

 

 

 

 RE-ATTACHMENT

 When re-attaching the top of the head, you start by cross hatching the rim of the head and the outer circle of the cut off piece so that they attach together more securely, you then use a lot of slip on both pieces and place the top back on. Then you use either your fingers or hand tools to merge the two sections of clay together. Sometimes if the layer of the head is too thin, the top of the head can sometimes dip and loose its form.

 

 

 

 FINISHED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tools

Basic ceramic tools

 

Throughout the week we were given the basic ceramic tools to help us manipulate the clay and to create the perfect detail on our portraits.
Here are a list of some of the tools that were used throughout the week.

 

POTTERS NEEDLE:

This is the potters needle, this came in handy later on in the week when
I was creating air holes inside of the head to let out any trapped air before putting the head inside the kiln and has many other uses.




CUT OFF WIRE:

The cut off wire is used to cut sections of clay from the large slabs that it comes as, this makes sure that the clay is cut smoothly and evenly.

  
 

 SCRAPERS:

This is a metal scraper, it is also known as a kidney because of its shape and is made in either wood, metal or rubber. The metal scraper is used in both pottery and ceramic techniques and is used to smooth the surface of the clay.



LOOP TOOLS:

Loop tools are very handy for trimming down the surface of the clay and taking away excess clay where it is not needed.

 

 

 

WOODEN MODELLING TOOLS:

 

Wooden modelling tools come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes and are mostly used for hand building tasks. During the week I used the wooden tools a lot to form the features on my portrait.

 

 

SPONGES AND BRUSHES:

During the making of portrait sculptures it is important to keep the clay moist at all times so it doesn't dry out, you can use sponges and brushes to apply water to dry areas. Sponges and brushes are also used to smooth the surface of the clay and to make it appear softer.

The first day

 

 

Demonstration

 

 

The class consisted of 14 students, much of which were adults who are already part of the Hastings Valley Fine Art Association that I previously wrote about and are either part time or full time artists themselves.

We got straight into practical work and started off with a demonstration by Jackie in which she showed us the steps we would need to take in order to start off our portrait sculpture.

 

To start off you have a wooden base with a fixed wooden pole in the centre, this is important for holding up your model because it will be heavy and would collapse otherwise. You bunch up newspaper into flat, oval shapes and tape them onto the pole to create a skull like shape. Jackie gave us pictures of skulls to show us how the chin and the jaw bone is lower than the back of the skull which helps later on. The key to portraiture ceramics is to always start with a basic shape which you can then add to, to create more life like forms and detail. With this stage you want to start with sections of paper on top of the pole, the back and the sides and then build onto those sections to make the skull whatever size you feel will be appropriate for the person you are creating, thinking about their head size and shape baring in mind that the sculpture will shrink 10% once it has been fired.

You then need to put a plastic bag over the paper skull. You do this because it stops the clay from drying out and the clay getting stuck to the paper.
There are different types of clay that you can use when creating portraits, and it mostly comes down to personal preference, some people in the class who have had more experience decided to use a different clay. What Jackie is using in her demonstration is earthenware clay which is the softest out of all three clay and can be fired at the lowest temperatures and when fired the clay turns into a very light cream colour.
There is also stoneware clay which is usually fired at higher temperatures and is stronger and more grainy than earthenware clay and it is used more for industrial purposes as it is also usually leak proof and more retainable. When fired the clay can either be a grey to dark grey colour or sometimes a brown. Finally there is porcelain clay which is originated from China and is know as China clay, porcelain clay burns at a very high temperature and is harder to form because of its low plasticity which makes it easier to become cracked and deformed when in the firing process. Porcelain is formed of tiny particles which makes it extremely smooth.
To apply the clay onto the head you roll out the clay into flat slabs, making sure the slabs aren't too thin because it will make the sculpture weaker. You then roll the slab onto the paper skull, the reason why you roll the clay on instead of just placing it on the skull is so that no air gets trapped between the two layers, when attaching two slabs together you again roll one side of the slab onto another side of the slab that has already been placed onto the skull. You continue this process until the skull is completely covered in clay, using quite big slabs of clay so that you don't risk the pieces blowing apart in the firing process and to keep the head even.

 

Once you have finished putting the slabs onto the head you use a wooden baton to bash the head, this gets rid of any trapped air between the layers of the clay. You may notice that if there is a lot of trapped air in the head that the clay itself will start to move further down the pole, this may mean that you need to cut some of the clay around the neck off. It is a good idea to do this before you start the shoulders otherwise you may be left with an extremely long neck and have to start the shoulders again. Here Jackie has added coils around the neck to create the idea of shoulders. To do this, roll out the clay making 2/3 coils about 2 inches in diameter each and roll them around the bottom on the neck so that half of the coil is lower than the neck itself, making sure that there is more clay build up at the base, you can see in the picture that the shoulders slope down.

 

 

 This stage is where we start to think about where the facial features will go and the proportions of each facial feature. To mark out where everything will go we used the same technique as you would use in life drawing.
 

 
 
These are some of the markings that Jackie made on the face to show us where we should put the facial features and to help give us the correct alignment.
Once the markings are drawn out onto the face you can then push the clay to make eye sockets, make a small triangular shape and add it to where the nose will be, this doesn't have to resemble the person you are creating too much because you can add detail later. At this stage you can also add a long oval shape to where the mouth will be to add dimension, making sure the features aren't flat against the face.
 We were also taught to think about the muscle structure of the face and she gave us tips like adding coils to the brow and jawline to bring out personal features.








 



Introduction to ceramics summer school course

 

About the course

  

The ceramics summer course started on the 15/7/13 and lasted for a duration of 5 days, a total of 35 hours throughout the week. Before applying for the ceramics course, I had no previous experience with ceramics or pottery and was keen to try new skills as ceramics and sculpture is something I am very much interested in.
The 5 day course consisted of learning different hand-building skills, such as coiling, slab building and modelling and using these skills to produce one or more finished pieces. There were demonstrations throughout the course from the teacher, Jackie Summerfield who has 30 years of ceramic experience and specialises in portraiture. She was inspirational, patient and a lovely woman who guided us through the week.
Whenever I thought about ceramics I usually thought about pots and bowls and ornamental objects, however upon this course we were introduced to portraiture ceramics, which isn't something I had thought about before.

 

These are just a few of Jackie's pieces  

 

 

Bob (Commissioned) 

 

 Grey Owl (Archie Belaney)

 

 Joe (Commissioned)