Following are my lesson plans for the current week. If your child is experiencing any difficulties or if you have any questions, you can contact me through email at vaskovc@penntrafford.orgor by phone at the High School (724) 744-4471.

Week of February 6, 2012

All of the students in Ceramics I-II-III have been hard at work on their clay projects. Everyone is making progress in understanding this challenging medium.

CERAMICS I– Most of the students have completed construction of their latest project…A Face Sculpture. They found it challenging to construct, store, hollow out and refine their sculptures. The process of creating sculpture is complex and involves many steps and a deeper understanding of the drying stages of clay. As they finish their projects and commit them to becoming “bone dry” in preparation for bisque firing they will be moving on to completing the surface of their Decorative Coil Pots. The first step will be to dip the entire bisque fired coil pot into a bucket of black mortar stain. This will coat the entire piece inside and out. They may then wipe the blackened surface with a sponge to remove some of the color and “antique” the surface. When the surface is dry they will paint on a light coat of acrylic varnish to seal the black so that it will not smear. Finally, the students will experiment with “dry brushing”, a technique that involves using a little paint on a dry brush. By wisping the brush over the surface, the paint goes on with a streaky texture. Dry brushing can be light or heavy and the colors may be layered to achieve different looks. When the students are satisfied with their pot’s surface, they will apply a final coat or two of acrylic varnish to add protection and shine.

CERAMICS II–Most of the students have completed the construction of their latest project …a Hand-Built Platter with Food Safe Glaze Designs. The finished platters are allowed to become bone dry in preparation for bisque firing in the kiln. The students are also completed a small, fun project that consists of creating a very small textured pinch pot that will be fired and glazed. The completed pot will then be mailed to a friend or relative that lives out of the area with a note requesting that they take a photo of themselves with the pot in their environment and send it back to the student artist. It will be fun to see where the pots go and who receives them. This week the students will be painting their Nameplate Sculptures that were fabricated in the 2nd9 weeks and have been bisque fired. After base coating the surface with white acrylic paint they may begin creating unique solutions specific to their particular artwork. I am encouraging them to use a wide variety of painting techniques to enhance the surface

CERAMICS III- The students are continuing to take turns on the potter’s wheel. The wheel enables the artist to create symmetrical vessels very quickly. It takes quite a bit of practice to learn the basic techniques and be able to create a vessel on one’s own. We will be making thrown bowls which will later be finished with food safe glazes. Most of the students are nearing the end of construction on their latest project…a Totem Sculpture. The students chose a theme and designed a piece that is a complex series of small sculptures attached to one another. This project has taken quite a lot of time build due to its larger size and has required them to use all of the skills they have acquired over the past three years to complete successfully. Their progress has been remarkable and I have been impressed with the amount of complexity they have created and their diligence and patience in solving their project’s challenges. All of the students have completed a donation bowl for the Westmoreland County Empty Bowls Dinner. The dinner is a fund raiser for the Westmoreland County Foodbank. The students constructed a simple hand-built bowl with a coil footrim that has been fired and they are now beginning to decorate them with majolica glazes. We will be donating them to the Empty Bowl Dinner which will be held at St. Bruno’s Church in early March! This week I will introduce their project for our Spring Raku Fire. They will view a PowerPoint on the “Magic of Raku” and see student work from previous years. They will then prepare a few thumbnail sketches of possible ideas for their own raku vessel.