Dawson students are making a ten foot mosaic banana. Come and see the progress!  More...

The following forming techniques are taught:

• pinching -hand
• coiling - hand & extruder
• slab - hand & roller
• texture - impressions and direct methods
• molds - dry clay, pottery plaster slump and hump
• wheel throwing
• combination of techniques
• unfired clay/adobe

Painted clay and straw environment by folk artist Leonard Knight. This massive painted adobe environment is located near the Salton Sea in southern California.

Finishing, Firing:

• sigillata- making and burnishing practice- pit firing
• low temperature electric kiln, cone 04 glazes
• stencils and slip with clear
• slip and carving - sgraffito
  - n : a ceramic or mural decoration made by scratching off a surface layer to reveal the ground. (Source: dictionary.com)
• wax resist and slip/glaze
• underglaze/ glaze

Related activities:

• Learn about clay composition
• Look for clay deposits
• Experiment with found clays and manufactured clays
• Analyze texture and shrinkage rate, report.
• Make sigillata, observe process of separating clay particles.
• Make slip, observe differences in properties.

History of Ceramics

• History of the Olympic Games on ancient Greek pottery
• Greek Pottery - History for Kids Website
• Claystation's Guide to Ceramic History
• Anasazi, Mimbres, Hopi and other Native American pottery traditions
• Chinese, Japanese, African, South American pottery & sculpture traditions
• A Chinese Emperor's Terracotta Army   Emperor Qin's Museum in China
• Mud & adobe construction from around the world
• A Secret History of Clay: From Gauguin to Gormley at the Tate Modern Museum unearths a little-known history of the use of clay in modern and contemporary art.

Contemporary Potters

• The Studio Potter Collection
• Contemporary potters of the world film series page
• Pottery links