MATERIAL PROPERTIES AND PROCESS

ANYA SINGH
UGK2211

Academic Year 2022-23 National Institute of Design Haryna

 WEEK - 1
Exploration of clay

Pinching coiling and slabbing

are three hand-building
techniques in clay that were
taught to us.
The pinching method refers to
actually pinching a ball of clay
into the desired shape.

We had to make 3 nesting bowls

out of this method which could
be stacked inside each other
 WEEK - 1
Exploration of clay

Slabbing is the technique

where we use a rolling pin to
roll out the clay into thin
sheets/slabs of clay.
We had to then make a cube of
4 inches out of these slabs by
cutting out the sides. This is
where we were introduced to
how we need to be sensitive to
the different stages of dryness
in clay.

I had t wait till the slab cutouts

were leather hard to get them
inside and join them using a
technique called slip and score
 WEEK - 1
Exploration of clay

In Slip and score, we first make

marks on the two surfaces that
we need to join and then put a
mixture of clay and water on
these score marks so that both
sides stick when they dry.

We also got to use different

wooden and metal tools ato
make textures on clay and
understand how clay interacts
with them.
 WEEK - 1
Exploration of clay

Coiling was the third technique

taught to us. in coiling, we roll
the clay into long strings, thick
or thin depending on the
requirement. we had to make a
10 cm high structure out of
these coils.
the thing to keep in mind while
making these coils was the water
consistency in clay, if it was on
the dry side it would get cracks
and if wet it wouldn't roll. also
while making the structure we
had to keep the coils at the
bottom thicker so that they
could hold the weight of the clay
that was going to be on top of it
 WEEK - 1
Exploration of metal

We got an aluminum sheet and

had to cut out squares triangles
and hexagons without wasting
the sheet. these photos are the
planning and cutting them out
using the snip.
I was introduced to tools such
as the center punch, snip,
mallet, chisel, striker, nose
pliers, etc.
 WEEK - 1
Exploration of metal

After the shape cutting we had

to explore the metal on our own
. how much does it bend, hwo
to make mars on it, basically
manipulate the surface

i made these flowers. were i

first made cutouts on the
hexagon and then i tried
curving the metal so that it
looked like petals
 WEEK - 1
Exploration of wood

I understood the different

techniques of marking cutting
and sanding wood.
How to work with wood, the
patience required so that it
doesn't get cracks, and How to
cut into small areas. When to
use the big tools and when to
use the sandpaper.
 WEEK - 1
Exploration of wood

Wood was hard for me because

it took a very long time and a
lot of patience to get the
results i wanted so i also
learned that i should wor on my
patience

The hardest part was trying not

to go too fast and getting
cracks.
out of the three things i tried to
make the other two cracked
open in several places only this
fish was left halfway done
 WEEK - 1
Exploration of Linear
Linear materials can come from any place. Here
bamboo and iron rods can be used s linear materials
only after they have been processed in certain ways.
iron rods after they're drawn into metal wires and
bamboo cut into strips are good linear materials

There are hard and soft linear materials and a good

linear material has a good amount of flexibility so it
can be easily bent, knotted weaved into the desired
shape.

Linear material properties

Tensile strength -
Twisting
Flimsy
Flexible
Flowy
Tension
Bendable
Pliability
Plasticity
Elasticity

Three major operations used to manipulate linear

materials are

Interlacing (weaving)
Interlooping (used in knitting and crochet)
Knotting
 WEEK - 1
Exploration of Linear

We talked about different types of

techniques to manipulate linear material

Twisting
knotting
sticking - most linear materials have good
cohesiveness
stitching
weaving

We tried out different types of knotting

techniques on a variety of thread, wool and
yarn.Understanding the different types of
knotting was pretty easy. However,
executing it was harder.

I learned three main knots in the thicker

yarn i.e.
Square knot
Half square knot
Hitch knot
 WEEK - 2
Assignment 1 - Personal expression

made a fantasy inspired scene with a

fairy frog and his fairy friend. this is
because after coming to college one of
the nicknames that i got was of a frog be
cause i act supposedly act like a frog.
the varity of flowers and foliage in the
scene represent the different
experiences and people I'm meeting here.
The broken wing signifies my growth and
the ups and downs of college.

I've explored different textures in the

plants and used different tools to create
the textures

The initial form was made by laying a big

slab on top of crunched-up newspaper
and after some time the frog was pinched
into shapes to make it thinner and the
newspaper was removed to make it
hollow
 WEEK - 2
Assignment 1 - Personal expression

I started with making a prototype and

understanding how a frog looks like,
how their limbs work and the way the
eyes and mouth is positioned.

from here the initial form was made by

laying a slab on top of scrunched up
newspaper and cutting away the excess
and after some time the frog was
pinched into shape to make it thinner
and newspaper was rmeoved to make it
hollow.
the base was also made out of a slab.

after this I took some real plants and

tried to replicate the flowers and
leaves. trying to add variety in texture.
different tools were used to make
different textures and a paintbrush was
used to give the frog a smooth skin.
 WEEK - 2
Assignment 1 - Personal expression

Maing the wings was hard because

theyre very thin and had to be dried to
a leather hard stage and then joined
using the core slip technique

The foliage and

small parts
were joined
using the score
and slip
technique
GRASS TEXTURE
 WEEK - 2
Assignment 1 - Personal expression

The final sculpture

 WEEK - 2
Assignment 1 - Personal expression

The final sculpture

 WEEK - 2
Assignment 2 - Italian Cuisine

WHAT WE MADE:

Farfalle pasta(dhanvi)
Ravioli(ameya)
Pizza(me and dhanvi)
Serving dishes(ameya and thammanah)
Eating dishes (me)
Wooden serving board (ameya and me)
Wine glasses and a wine bottle(me)
Knives, spoons and forks (me)
toppings for ravioli (tammanah)
 WEEK - 2
Assignment 2 - Italian Cuisine

Understood how to give different

textures in clay.

the way toatoes have seeds how to

replicate that
the sauce in pasta is wet and how the
wine glass and bottle needed to be
smooth.

We used slip to make the sauce and it

was interesting to see how we could
give such a liquidy texture and how
hard the slip dried
 WEEK - 2
Assignment 2 - Italian Cuisine

THE 5 WINE GLASSES

Making these taught me how to not put

clay to dry in the direct sun and dry it
slowly, how if its too dry and I join it, it
won't stick and will come apart at the
time of firing.
when to stop tampering with my clay
work because it's dry and how to
handle the things i make with care. Out
of the total 5 I made this is the only one
that came out in one piece after firing
 WEEK - 2
Assignment 2 - Italian Cuisine

THE WINE BOTTLE

THE FINAL PRODUCT

CANDLE AND WINE BOTTLE

 WEEK - 2
Assignment 2 - Italian Cuisine

Making of the pizza separately by

making the crust and toppings and
sticking the toppings with slip while
simultaneously using it as the pizza
sauce
 WEEK - 2
Assignment 2 - Italian Cuisine

Different techniques used to make

different shapes of pasta and the
toppings
 WEEK - 2
Assignment 2 - Italian Cuisine

his wooden pizza serving dish warped

during drying

1 - Either the slab that was used to make

this was not properlyhandled and was
bent a lot while it was being flipped
while rolling or transferred
and because clay has memory it
remembers what we did to it in its
molecules that is why we knead clay, to
rearrange the molecules so they're aligned
(and no air bubbles remain) while drying
this warped up

2 - another reason is uneven drying. clay

has to be dried slowly and evenly, if its
kept in the sun it has to be flipped over
again and again because if not it dries from
the outside to inside this mean while some
parts are dry some are still completely wet
which leads to the warping
 WEEK - 2
Assignment 2 - Italian Cuisine

These spoons, knives and forks just like

everything i made broke.

For these spoons I used actual spoons

as a stencil and used them to mould
thin clay slabs into spoons.

however, I put them to dry in direct sun

and it shrank and because the clay was
still stuck to the spoon it cracked while
drying.

clay needs to be dried very gradually as

quick drying creates stresses which
causes breakage and cracks.
 WEEK - 3
Assignment 2 - Material Combination

CONCEPT SKETCHES
 WEEK - 3
Assignment 2 - Material Combination

behaviour basic material can not

achieve

Flexibility

behaviour desired to achieve

flexibility using the help of wire

concept sketches of how to achieve

revious slide
 WEEK - 3
Assignment 2 - Material Combination

THE PROCESS

I figured out the size and the shape of

the armor had to be so that it could fit
most people and also look nice I made
a stencil on paper to understand how
many pieces I needed and so 45
squares of the dimensions 4x4cm were
cut out of two thin slabs of clay My first
mistake was making the holes too small
not keeping in consideration how clay
shrinks when it dries up and then
further shrinks during firing
 WEEK - 3
Assignment 2 - Material Combination

I had to make both sides again, this

time making the holes bigger and
adding cutouts and engravings to the
pieces.

The pieces are going to be attached to

a main neck piece which will be made
out of chords using the alternative
square knot so that it is comfortable
and adjustable.

to attach the pieces together, I had two

options yarn and wire, after trying both
I settled on the wire because joining
with thread made the pieces flimsy. the
wire gave it strength and structure
while at the same time providing
flexibility.
 WEEK - 3
Assignment 2 - Material Combination

I combined clay with metal and linear

to make it flexible and comfortable.

The armor was going to be small clay

pieces, very thin so that they were not
heavy when they come together, joined
using thin metal wire to make it flexible.

The shoulder pieces will be joined to a

main neck piece which will hold it all
together. This would hold a lot of
weight so it was necessary to make it
comfortable as this would be on the
neck. This is where linear came in. A
choker is
made out of chords because they're
strong and also soft and pliable.
 WEEK - 3
Assignment 2 - Material Combination

pieces after being joined with wire

molding to the shape of my hand
 WEEK - 3
Assignment 2 - Material Combination

The neck piece made out of chords

using the alternative square knot
 WEEK - 3
Assignment 2 - Material Combination

THE FINAL PRODUCT

 WEEK - 2,3
EXPLORATIONS

AGARBATTI STAND
 WEEK - 2,3
EXPLORATIONS
 WEEK - 2,3
EXPLORATIONS

TAN IDEA

How much weight can clay hold?

Another idea for a material

combination.
the base will be made out of clay and
the straps and strings out of clay

The idea is to understand how much

weight clay How it should be arranged
to carry maximum weight and also how
to make it comfortable to wear.
 WEEK - 2,3
EXPLORATIONS

Mixing clay with color. They dried out

into a pastel version of the color that
was mixed.

Mixing clay with fevicol, The cay

became brittle and started falling
apart.

Mixing clay with oil. the clay became

softer and easier to use.
 WEEK - 2,3
LEARNINGS
THE FIRING

How does clay change after firing

1 - it gets stronger
2 - becomes resistant to water
3 - the color changes
4 - sound
The clay items are fired in a kiln.
a kiln is similar to an oven and is used to
heat up objects

The clay we use after firing is called

teracotta.
It matures completely at the temptrature
of 750 - 800.
When the things we made have dried
completely in sun i.. are bone dry theyre
kept inside the kiln for firing
The first few hours of heating up has to be
done very slowly because this is the time
when the remaining moisture is being
dried away
 WEEK - 2,3
LEARNINGS

Reaching the temperature of 200 should

take 3 to 4 hours. If this temperature is
increased too quickly the things inside
might burst. During firing after the
temperature of 300 clay changes on a
structural level, the chemical composition
changes and the clay becomes impervious
to water this is known as vitrification

after another 3 hours, we have to reach

the temperature of 750.
the total firing process can take up to 8
hours..The whole process of firing is a very
careful one and we need to be vigilant.A
reading needs to be taken every 20
minutes to ensure there's no sudden
increase in temperature.
 WEEK - 2,3
LEARNINGS

The kiln is covered inside with something

called ceramic wool which is an insulator
and keeps the heat in. the kiln has 4
burners at the start we usually have one
burner on at the lowest flame and then the
burner diagonally across is turned on so
there's even heat across the kiln.

clay matures at the lowest temperature.

This firing is known as biscuit firing and its
the most basic form of firing without any
ceramic glazes
 WEEK - 2,3
LEARNINGS
THE PYROMETER

This pyrometer has a long needle and is

used to measure temperature insilde the
kiln. The needle is inserted and the
temperature is noted down after fixed
intervals

Theres also a peephole in the kiln so when

the clay starts to mature we can see how
the clay is turning orange.

This peephole can also be used to measure

temperatues if we keep pyrometric cones
inside.
Pyrometric cones are cones made of
uniformly mixed ceramic materials in
different proportions so that when the iln
reaches a certain temperature they bend
and you can know that temperature has
been reaches