Introduction to Ceramics - Ceramics Workshop Day 1

In the introductory lesson for the Ceramics workshop, my group and i were shown the basic uses of clay. In this workshop we were given the freedom to experiment with the clay and the clay tools on our own but in the idea that we were making buttons.
We were told that  to create a flat surface on the clay we were to ensure that it wasn't dry, and to put two wooden rods at each side of the clay. This was so that when we rolled the clay out, it would only go to the height of the rods, meaning the clay would have an even width throughout.

This was the clay after i had rolled it, demonstrating  the use of the wooden rods.

After we did this, we were asked to add texture to the clay to then cut out in the shape of buttons. To do this we were given a basket of things such as a comb, stamps, rope and much more to press into the clay. I found this fun as you were never sure how the texture would turn out in the clay and it was fun to experiment.

This was my clay after i added texture to it, using things such as textured wallpaper, a comb and shells.

After we added texture to the clay, we were then able to cut out shapes to use as buttons. In order to make the buttons useful, we were to pierce holes into them in order to be able to sew them onto things.

These were just some of the buttons i had created using the textured clay.

After we did as many buttons as we could, my group and i were then able to create things such as pendants. To do this, the process was exactly the same as creating buttons except you only needed to pierce one hole in it.

These are the pendants i created using the same
process as creating the buttons i had previously done.

The work i did in this workshop links in with the nature project i have also just started as in the texture i added things such as butterflies, flowers, snowflakes and also animal stripes.

Finishing my final piece - Jewelry Workshop Day 4

In our last day in the Jewelry Workshop, my group and i were asked to finish off our final piece. In this session, everyone was trying to use the gas torch to solder their pieces together, this unfortunately meant i was unable to finish off my piece. I finished all of the pieces of copper and brass that i was going to solder together, i was just unable to solder them. I didn't really  enjoy the Jewelry workshop as a whole  as it was all intricate and it was hard to get things to go as you wanted them to, meaning if something went wrong you had to improvise with it since you didn't have enough time to re-do it. I also dis-liked this workshop as there weren't enough tools to go round the entire group so we  had to que to use things such as the gas torch, which there was only one of.

These were the pieces of copper and brass that i had etched/pierced out to use as my final  piece.