Final Pot

Here is my final pot made using coils. It is yellow background with a black design so that it would stand out. I really like how it has turned out and think the colours work very well together creating a striking look. Overall I am very please with my final pots and I feel I have made a good first attempt in ceramics.

Making the Pot

Coil Pot

Coiled pots are constructed by gradually stacking and joining coils of clay one on top of the other. The coils can be left visible or can be smoothed away depending on your desired aesthetic end result. It is important that the coils join well during construction to avoid cracking or separation during the drying and firing process.
To avoid cracking or coil separation, the clay is required to be soft and using the proper process to connect the coils together. You can use your thumb or index finger to smooth the coil into the lower level coil or use a wooden or silicon rib tool while the clay is still soft. If you want the coils to show on both, the inside and outside of the pot, slip and scoring is required but with no guarantee of surviving the drying and firing process without coil separation.
See a basic step by step example below where the coils are not visible in part of the pot and visible with surface texture on one side of the pot's rim.

How to Make a Coil Pot

1. Flatten piece of clay to about 1/4" thickness. Use rolling pin or a slab roller. Cut slab to desired dimensions. Ahead of time prepare clay coils by hand or with an extruder. Make sure your pre made clay coils are covered with plastic to keep them soft - coils dry out very quickly.

2. Score and slip slab and lay the first layer of coil. Push the coil firmly into the slab. Cut first layer of coil as illustrated below to insure perfect fit around the parameters of the slab. Remove the unused coil pieces and blend the joint. Pinch / scrape the coil with one finger into the slab smooth using your finger, a rib or a wooden tool.

3. Smooth the outside using a rib. Place the next layer of coil, pinch and smooth and in previous layer. When merging two layers, make sure that one hand is supporting the clay on one side while the other hand pushing / smudging the other side. 

4. Keep adding layers. You can add up to three at a time before blending and smoothing. When cutting a coil to fit, make the cut in a different place to insure that two joints are not directly one above the other.

5. To widen the pot, use longer coils. If taking a break cover your work and pre made coils so that the clay will remain moist and soft.

6. Use a paddle to both shape the pot and strengthen the coiled wall. Dry slowly by covering the pot loosely with plastic before Bisquing.

http://www.lakesidepottery.com/Pages/Pottery-tips/Making-a-clay-coiled-pot-Lakeside-Pottery-Tutorial.htm

Here is some pictures of me making my ceramic bowl using coils.

Before adding any slip or glaze I wanted to stamp my elephant into the bowl using the stamp I create earlier. I could then add the slip on top and rub away so that the elephant stood out and was a terracota colour.

Next I added a yellow slip on both, rubbed away my elephant and then fired them. The colour comes out a lot lighter before the gloss is added. This worried me a bit as I thought I would have a very light yellow. I then added a transparent gloss on top for a shiny effect. Below are images of my pots after being glazed.

After this we screen printed my final design on to the ceramic transfer paper with the ink that allows the design to stay and the rest burn away. The pot was then re-fired. 

Below are all the practice pots and tiles we produced during this brief that helped me decide which processes to use.

Design on Pot

Design for Pot

On my vase I would like a Elephant design as the main attraction. It should be the focus of the pot. I began by doing some initial sketches of Elephants. I came across the artist David Shepherd who paints a lot of elephant pictures. He painted a lot with a group of Elephants this gave me the idea to focus on having a family of elephants- Mother, Father and baby. 

David Shepherd

David studied art under professional artist, Robin Goodwin, with early commissions for the RAF taking him to Aden in 1960, and on to Kenya. This trip changed his life. He was asked to paint his first wildlife subject and at the same time, he became a conservationist overnight when he witnessed 255 zebra dead around a waterhole poisoned by poachers.

Since then, David has enjoyed successful one-man shows around the world and has won many awards. He has been the subject of several TV programmes and published five books and over 200 limited edition prints.  David still lives at a frenetic pace, continuing to donate paintings to wildlife through his Foundation, to pay back "my enormous debt of gratitude to the animals I paint". 

Above are some of David Shepherd's Elephant paintings.

http://shop.davidshepherd.org/list.php?merchandise=0&specialoffers=0&search%5Bkeyword%5D=&search%5Bartist%5D=000356&search%5Bsubject%5D=elephant&search%5Bmedium%5D=&search%5Bsort%5D=

Here is a drawing I did which I then scanned and put in photoshop. I used a freehand sketchy approach, however I feel this may be too complicated to screen print to place on the pot. Therefore I began to create a simpler design.

Here I wanted to see what the design would look like with pure black lines and a white background. I think it works better for a pot design but is still much too complicated.

BioWorkZ

I really love this artist's graphic style of work and the bold fineliner lines. He does detailed illustrations that remain simple at the same time with no shading just a basic line. I took inspiration from his work and came up with my own design. I think it will work great on the pot and if I get the right colour combination could look very striking. 

Who is Ben Kwok?​​​​​​​​​​​​

BioWorkZ a.k.a. Ben Kwok is an L.A. based graphic artist and illustrator. Born in Taiwan, raised in Los Angeles, art has always been a huge part of my life. When I could first used chopsticks, I was already doodling on whatever I could get my hands on. I love complex hyper detailed artwork. To lose myself into the “flow” of drawing is about as good as it gets. I’m very passionate about what I do, that’s why I continue doing it.

I was heavily influenced by the works of H.R. Giger, Alfonse Mucha. Now, I find myself being drawn into type/lettering inspired artwork. Especially works by Aaron Horkey, and David A. Smith. Their attention to detail is simply amazing. I have yet to see any contemporary artists come close to their caliber. There are many other inspiring artists such as Hydro74, Jon Contino, Android Jones, Audrey Kawasaki, to name a few.
http://www.bioworkz.com/#!about/cuja

Here is some of his work:

http://society6.com/artist/BioWorkZ

Here is a drawing created in the style of Ben Kwok. It is made up of cogs and shapes all fitting together. I really like this drawing but I am worried it is too complicated still.

 Here I wanted to see how it would look on a simple white pot. It works quite well but I would prefer a bright colour in the background.

 This is a design in which I wanted to see how it would look repeated. I think it adds a new look and the legs create a nice shape together.

 This is a all black version which works much better as a repeat. I could use this as a border around my bowl.

This is the design on a vase shape to see how it would look with a brighter background. I think the design itself doesn't stand out enough so I need to make it simpler and bolder.

I love this design! This is what I will use on the pot. I used illustrator to create a much simpler version and it turned out really well and think it looks very striking.

I wanted to see how it would work on a bright yellow background and I feel the two colours mix very well. I will try to produce a similar look for my final piece.

The pot does need some information or  logo that will link it to animal conservation and after researching a lot of Elephant Conservation foundations, I feel the International Elephant Foundation. org is the best one to use. I didn't want to overload the pot with information so thought having there logo would work best.

http://www.elephantconservation.org/

IEF supports conservation, education and research of the world’s elephants with a commitment to affect positive change through the facilitation of elephant conservation and sound scientific investigation resulting in the protection of elephants for future generations.

 Above is my final designs to go on the vase pot, and below is the design to go around the edge of the bowl ceramic pot.