ART 2503 - Ceramics I

• Develop essential skills for creating art by correctly handling ceramic material through all stages of formation including drying, surface treatments, and firing processes.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the elements and principles of design through analyzing the form and surface treatments of ceramic objects. 
• Develop critical thinking and presentation skills through the production and critique of projects that explore expressive possibilities of course media. 

• Students develop higher order thinking skills.
• Students gain greater awareness of cultural perspectives.
• Students develop effective oral communication skills.

Topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Hand-Building: pinch, coil, hard slab, soft slab, press molding
• Surfaces: dip, pour, brush, and spray application; glazes, underglazes, slips; sgraffito, mishima, inlay,
• Firing: types of kilns, kiln environments, preparation of work and kiln for firing, loading/unloading a kiln, bisque firing, glaze firing
• Ceramics: historical vessels, contemporary vessels, and vocabulary

Learning Activities

• In-class clay fabrication, firing and glaze application
• Outside of class research, fabrication, firing and glaze application
• Sketchbook drawing
• Critiques/Presentations
• Vocabulary Assessments

Assessments

• Work may be graded at various stages of the firing/drying process.
• Work may be graded as individual projects, as assigned collections, or as a portfolio collection. 

Grading guidelines

• A minimum of 70% of this course’s grade should be in-class ceramic projects with some variation allowed in terms of weight for sketchbook, quizzes, documentation, presentations, and critiques.