Wendy Cortes

Ms. Carol Schwartz

The creation of my Final Project

Inspired by Kenzan Ogata, my final project consists of three pieces, two wheel thrown

bowls; one with its rim slightly curved out, and the other a simple cereal bowl. The third piece is

a wheel thrown cup with a smooth rounded handle. These pieces were originally going to have

images carved or painted into them, but time, and not having the proper tools, did not permit

me to add this feature. Each piece took a whole days work in class and I only used four tools,

the wire cutter, the needle tool, a red rubber ribbed, and my two hands.

Kenzan Ogata was a Japanese artist that changed the way pottery was detailed. He

created a new style that replaced the heavily textured, decorative, and over glazed enamels of

the Kyoto pottery. His work is very clean cut and smooth with, instead of using the traditional

style described in the previous sentence, his pieces had very finely painted images on them

created with china paints, then to finish off they only had a thin layer of glaze added on to

them. At times his brother would paint for him, Korin Ogata, a scholar in painting. They

occasionally worked together on his pieces from 1709 until his brother's death in 1716. Kenzan

Ogata created beautiful ceramic pieces that either had an abstract image painted on or had a

symbolic glaze to give the piece an identity. His works ultimately lead me to create my three

pieces of art.

The first piece created was the cup with a rounded handle. The way to make a cup on

the wheel has been my favorite technique so far in class. I began with a small ball of clay the
 Wendy Cortes

Ms. Carol Schwartz

size of an apple or an orange. I was easily able to center the clay since it was able to fit in the

palm of my hand. After the clay was centered I used my middle finger to create a hole that will

allow me to pull up on the clay and create smooth walls for the cup. I check the thickness of the

bottom of the cup before I start pulling on the walls with a needle tool. After I created the walls,

I decided I wanted my cup to be rounded out instead of just a cup that goes straight up and

down. Pizzazz is always good when it comes to art. After I rounded out my cup I used my needle

tool and placed the cowboy move on it, which is removing the top edge of the rim of the cup to

even out and smooth the rim. Once my cup was the shape and size I wanted, I removed it from

the wheel using my wire cutter and slipped it onto a piece of wood and placed it under a light to

dry, so I would be able to attach the handle. The handle was created out of a cone shape chunk

of clay. I held the cone shaped clay over a bucket of water and using the water to wet the clay I

pulled on the smaller end of the clay and cut them off with the wire cutter and created 3

handles and only let two dry next to my cup. I was not satisfied with all three handles I created.

Then, when the ideal handle and my cup were leather hard, a dry stage of clay, I slipped and

scored them together. When all of this was finished, I placed my piece on a shelf to dry so it

could then be bisque fired.

The second piece created was the cereal bowl. I started off with a clay ball the size of a

grape fruit and centered it on the wheel. Centering has been very difficult for me when the clay

is bigger than my hands, it throws off my balance and posture and it may be the length of my

arms and legs, but it is nothing that a piece of foam didn’t fix. Placing the piece of foam

between my elbows and hips helped cushion my arms providing me with the leverage and
 Wendy Cortes

Ms. Carol Schwartz

support I needed to keep my hands steady. Even with the adjustment, it took me two balls of

clay, the same size, to finally get the clay centered enough for me to begin shaping my bowl. I

placed my thumbs on the top center of the clay and created a hole. After I created the

indenture, I checked the thickness of the bottom of my soon to be bowl with the needle tool to

make sure there was enough clay at the bottom for me to carve out a foot to make sure my

piece is balanced once it has been completed. After the thickness was ideal I began to create

the curved walls by pulling up on the clay at a 3o’clock angle. When I was beginning to be

satisfied with the shape of the walls on my bowl, I removed about a quarter of an inch off the

rim to smooth out and even the surface using the cowboy move. After I was completely

satisfied with the shape, I removed my bowl from the wheel with the wire cutter sliding my

piece off and placed on top of a piece of wood to dry, once the bowl was leather hard I flipped

it and let the foot reach the same point. When the bowl reached the dry state of leather hard I

was able to carve the foot out and smooth my pieces out with the red rubber ribbed. After

completing this bowl I moved on to my last piece, the bowl with the curved out rim.

The last piece was the exact same procedure as the bowl except it was a smaller amount

of clay and instead of letting the bowl dry after it was completed I took my hands and as the

wheel was still spinning I curved out the rim by applying pressure on the inside about an inch

below the top of the rim and watched the clay fan out and produce the rim. It was very difficult

to create the curved rim; I had to make two bowls before my piece came out the way I wanted.

In the end all the hard work and effort I put in was worth it all. I am very happy with my pieces

and plan to glaze them with the colors Seagrove, the cat, kaki red, and blue and green glaze.
 Wendy Cortes

Ms. Carol Schwartz

Thank you Ms. Carol for all the patience you have given our class. I will be using these

techniques you taught me in a later time in my life.