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Goal

The goal of this grant is to provide students with tools to create a set of decorative, but functional nesting bowls.

Students will primarily address three national visual arts standards with this project:
1-Students will use the arts, specifically ceramics, to create work that is artistic as well as utilitarian.
(VA.912.H.2.2 Analyze the capacity of the visual arts to fulfill aesthetic needs through artwork and utilitarian objects.)
2-Students will choose which skills to use to decorate their set of ceramic bowls—carving/sgraffito, sprigs/slip, lace impressions, and/or a decorative glaze technique and complete those decorations at a high level or proficiency.
(VA.912.O.1.2 Use and defend the choice of creative and technical skills to produce artworks.)
3-Students will construct their bowls and add their details/decorations, refining as they go, using the best craftsmanship possible to make their bowls artistic and utilitarian.
(VA.912.C.2.1 Examine and revise artwork throughout the art-making process to refine work and achieve artistic objective.)
 

What will be done with my students

Advanced students will create a set of decorative, but functional nesting bowls. Beginning students will create a single decorative, but functional bowl. Both will use the following techniques and tools:
• Using slab roller or rolling pin, roll a flat slab of clay, slightly larger than the plaster hump mold
• Secure the hump mold on the potter’s wheel and lay the slab of clay over it
• On a slow speed, smooth the slab into the shape of the wheel, pulling from the center
• Trim the edge to make it even
• Compress the base, adding a foot or rim
• When bowl is leather hard, remove from plaster hump mold and add design details, possible methods include:
o Impressing outside with lace doily pattern (not the inside as food may become trapped in creases)
o Carving, using needle and sgraffito tools, either a design or a word on the outside
o Adding a word of quote using uncooked alphabet pasta on the outside
o Attaching a sprig or a design with slip trail to the outside, using slip & score method
• Once bowl is fired, students may use a variety of glazing techniques including bucket dipping, spraying, splattering, or painting
 

Benefits to my students

Advanced students, who have practice on the wheel, still have a difficult time throwing a SET of bowls that either go together or are able to nest together. These plaster hump molds will give them the tool to be successful at this task as well as teaching them a new way to create a bowl on the wheel—they have not worked with plaster molds on the wheel before. In addition, they will have to make good decisions about the decoration/design details they choose to add—keeping the bowls’ ability to nest as well as keeping them food safe.
Beginning students, who have not had any practice on the wheel yet, will be able to use this process as an introduction to how the potter’s wheel works while still creating a successful, utilitarian bowl. This project will be an excellent complement to the hand built mugs we make in December for our holiday hot chocolate party—part of the students’ grade is that their mug must be functional, not just decorative. The same concept will apply to this slab bowl.
All of the students, as they decorate their bowls will work with the variety of techniques—some new, others they have used before—honing their skills and becoming stronger craftsmen.
 

Budget Narrative

All materials for this grant are non-consumable and may be used in future projects. Students will be learning a new bowl making technique by using these plaster molds--one that may be carried forward with other projects in ceramics classes as well as with my pottery club after school, which creates bowls to donate to Empty Bowls Naples. 

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