Description of Work/Assignment: In the second unit of Intro to Ceramics, I learned what slab building is and how to utilize it to create round containers. I also learned about carving, scratch-and-slip, and handle construction. I made three different pieces using slab building, as shown above. The first piece utilized scratch-and-slip to add texture, the second piece demonstrated handle construction, and the third piece uses carving.
Which 21st Century Skills do you feel this assignment addresses, and why? How did you develop and/or improve upon each 21st Century Skill with this assignment? I feel that this assignment addresses my Self Direction, Global Awareness, Thinking and Problem Solving, and Interpersonal skills. First of all, this project required to me to be incredibly self-directed. In this class, we're given a short lecture on the new technique that we're learning, and then we're expected to start utilizing that technique immediately. We also are strongly encouraged to try to find an unconvential way to apply the new technique. Since there's not much guidance for what we're supposed to make, I had to be incredibly self-directed in order to keep working and finding new ways to apply what I had just learned. This project also addressed my Global Awareness skills, since slab building is one of the oldest pottery techniques and my teacher wanted us to understand the history behind it. In that week's quiz, which usually just tests our knowledge of whatever technique we just learned, I had to answer questions about which civilizations first used slab building, what they used it for, and which technique replaced it. I also had to use my Thinking and Problem Solving skills pretty frequently throughout this project. As I mentioned above, we're mostly left to our own devices during class. There's about twenty of us students, and one teacher, so I couldn't just ask Renee for help every time I ran into an issue. Instead, I had to use what techniques and clay properties I knew to figure out how to overcome each obstacle. For example, when I ran out of slip to stick the handle onto my mug, I had to figure out the right proportion of water to clay and make my own slip to use. Finally, this project addressed my Interpersonal skills. This seems counterintuitive, since much of this class is done independently, but once it's time to clean up, it suddenly becomes a huge group effort. Clay is incredibly messy, since you have to work with it wet and then it dries very quickly. Each person also uses a pretty wide arrary of shared tools each class, all of which require cleaning. So, at the end of each class, everyone has to figure out who's responsible for cleaning what and which of the bigger tasks, such as mopping and cleaning the slab roller, will be done by who.
What are you most proud of from this assignment, and why? I am most proud of my third piece, which utilized slab building and carving. For this piece, I ambitously planned to carve out shapes on all four sides and on the lid. It ended up taking me an entire class to carve each flower, since the walls of the container were so thick and the clay was so soft. However, this made it much more rewarding to see the finished product and it turned out to be one of my favorite pieces.
What was most difficult about completing this task? The most difficult part of completing this task was forcing myself to approach each slab building piece in a different way. Once you get the hang of a technique, it's easy to become mechanical and make things in the same way every time. This results in never learning anything new or having to overcome obstacles, which is negative in the long run.
How could you improve this work? If you could start over, what would you do different? If I could redo and improve this work, I would take the thickness of the slabs into account much more when making each piece. In my second piece, the slabs were too thin, while they were much too thick in my third piece. I would have saved myself a lot of unecessary struggle if I had taken the time to measure out thickness in addition to length and width when cutting my slabs.
How does this relate to what you have learned in the past? This project related to what I learned in the past in that while I was using slabs to make containers instead of using the push-pot technique, I still had to use what I learned with push-pots about the limitations of clay while using the slabs.
How can you apply this to future learning? I have actually already applied this to future learning; now that we have moved over to the pottery wheels, I have to remember what I learned about thickness and shaping when I was slab building in order to throw a piece well.