1. Introduction
Clay is that part of the earth surface which is sticky when wet and hardens up when dried and is irreversible to the sticky state when heat is introduced to it and yet breakable. Norton said clay is made up of tiny crystals; many often so small that, it cannot be seen with ordinary microscope
| [1] | Norton, F. H. (1956). Ceramics for the artist potter. Addison-Wesley Publishing. |
[1]
. These crystals are composed mainly of minerals called kaolinite (Al
2O
3.2SiO
2.2H
2O) whose composition approximates as follows 47 percent silica (Sio
2), 39 percent alumina (Al
2O) and 14 percent water (H
2O). Clay is a secondary product of the earth crust; that is, a result from the decomposition of rocks, by the weathering of old rocks of feldspar type. The use of this material in the production of articles is termed as pottery and or ceramics. The Fine arts being concerned with the attainment of beauty, the Arts of conduct is for good looking and the liberal art for its usefulness. Pottery, historical considered a true craft as reiterated by Kathrine
| [2] | Kathrine, R. S. (2014). Knowledge network and craft traditions in the ancient world. New York, Routleddge publication. p 127. |
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was the readily available material to fashion out solid items to contain and store liquid, and must be based on sincerity of construction and the people needs to master the simple truth for which it stands. It is therefore best to take pottery that is entirely made by hand. Having acquired a sensitive torch, the potter is able to express fine thoughts through the medium of clay, for all work starts with a thought and remains a thought expressed; only using the material as a means of expression. Shlomo
| [3] | Shlomo, G. S. (2006). Art myth and Deviance: New castle, UK, Cambridge scholars publishing, p 35. |
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says that, among other concerns, art has typically concerned creativity, aesthetic communication, symbolism, craft and fine art. In the traditional pottery setting the products are largely concerned with functionality and symbolism, where the functional aspect of it concerns itself with household items while the other products such as figurines are for religious purposes. Due to the advent of formal education, bringing about different ideas, reasoning and questioning the tradition, has brought about variation in the production techniques in terms of form and shapes, thereby creating the room for more manipulation of clay. The pottery industry has a lot of production or fabrication techniques suitable for the various clay materials available. For instance, in the pottery industry with clay as the chief material, two major techniques are readily available to the studio potter namely hand formation and machine formation under each of these techniques there are several Methods to produce with, among the hand formation techniques which are pinching coiling and slab making. The application of any one of these pottery forming methods or the combination of two or more methods always result in solid forms, there after the pot surface is decorated in a way, whiles the machine formation helps in the making of perfect circular or cylindrical forms.
In my visitation to exhibitions, galleries, pottery centres and ceramics studios and saw how fellow students' and studio practitioners' produce their works. I observed that apart from few sculptural pieces, a lot of the pieces are formed with solid surfaces or appears in solid form with a whole lot of attention given to the surfaces by way of decoration and finishing either by cuttings, incisions, relief and or glazing the surfaces. This has remained as a tradition and conventionally accepted by almost all practitioners. These undoubtedly are still useful to the present day generation and the future but as happened in other areas of art, particularly in painting where a group of painters lead by Pablo Picasso in 1907, pronounced monotony on the line and style of painting at that time, in the late twentieth century and brought about 'cubism', so do I feel and seeks to digress from tradition to bring about a forming technique variation, which I termed twisting, whereas the attention would be on how to manipulate the clay by twisting strips of slabs and creating non-solid forms out of that as well as weaving coils to produce ceramic wares. This study shall research in to the areas of twisting and weaving, making some inferences to the basketry industry which present a whole 1ot of weaving variation to fashion out products and designs that can be supported by clay. The makings of pots or cylinders with coils, is a continuous spiraling process with practice over time to produce accurately. As said by Desmond,
| [4] | Desmond, K. K. (2011). Ideas about art. John Wiley & Sons. P. 5-2.5. |
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, wrapping clay coils around, in a circular motion pilling it on each other to attain a height.
1.1. Statement of Motivation
The design and construction of huge decorative pots remains circular and spherical in form among ceramic artists in Ghana. In our Ghanaian domestic settings, pots have served as utensils and various purposes including beautification of homes, hospitals, hotels, parks and other lawns of magnificent buildings. However, observation of the aforementioned places reveals that most of the pots used are spherical and circular in form. featured by monotonous cylindrical and circular shapes and a whole lot of surface attention such as incisions, relief cuttings and glazing. These ceramic pots have always presented solidness in their form, therefore creating the notion that ceramic art wares are not more than solid pot forms and such circular and spherical forms. The art of producing non-solid spherical or circular ceramic wares remains an unexplored area. This phenomenon of producing solid spherical and circular forms therefore creates the opportunity to design and construct decorative ceramic wares through twisting and weaving.
Study has the following objectives
1) To develop twist and weave design concepts from natural and artificial scenes particularly plants.
2) To create ceramics forms with self-decorating surfaces by twisting and weaving concepts.
1.3. Studio Practiced Questions
1) In what way(s) can design concepts be developed from natural and artificial scenes particularly plants?
2) What are the possibilities of creating interesting forms either than spherical and circular ones worthy of any aesthetic quality, through twisting and weaving approach?
3) What kind or sort of reinforcement is needed to support the twisted or woven works?
1.4. Delimitation (Scope of the Study)
The study is limited to the exploration of twisted and woven forms in nature to produce decorative and monumental pieces for indoor and outdoor uses.
1.5. Importance of the Study
1) It would affirm the fact that clay can be twisted and woven into intricate and interesting patterns.
2) It would contribute to an alternative way of approach to hand building of ceramic wares or add to the known basic hand forming techniques which are pinching coiling and slab making.
1.6. The Definitions of Technical Terms
Twisting: the act of turning the direction of a slab to alternate the flat side against the edge
“Twistism”: A term coined by the artist to describe a technique of twisting clay strips to form or build wares, which is the combination of coil making (rolling) and slab making.
Fettling: the removal of excess slip accumulations such bumps, lumps, projections at the joints,
Soaking: the act of adding excess water to dry clay with lumps to loosen to be able to go through a sieve (mesh)
Pugging: the use of a machine called a pug mill to blend clay into a homogenous mass to suit workable state condition
Extrusion: when a pug mill is used to draw out indented shapes like tiles, pipes etc. With a die at the exit is termed extrusion
Coiling: the rolling out of clay ropes with the palms on a flat surface
Slab: the cutting of smaller dimensions of clay strip into long rectangular shapes, at least palm height
1.7. Organization of the Study
The rest of the study has four chapters. Chapter Two discusses review of related literature which includes both empirical and theoretical reviews. Chapter Three also looks at the material and methods, while Chapter Fow gives a detailed account of the results and discussion. Summary conclusions and recommendations are presented in Chapter Five.
2. Review of Related Literature
In the area of every study, there are contributions to the growth of that particular field, in the area of inventions, discoveries, finding, theories, and counter disproval's etc. by subsequence peoples' studies into such areas. In view of this; the artist shall attempt to review some portions of ceramic art literature to contribute his quota.
Due to the vast nature of ceramics, the following areas were reviewed which is very much related to the project topic under consideration.
1) Twisting and weaving techniques
2) Art and creativity
3) Concepts and philosophy
4) Contemporary art
5) Production techniques
6) Monumental ceramics
2.2. Twisting and Weaving Techniques
Twisting is the successive repetitions of tums of a strip of slab coupled with rolling. Coulter
| [5] | Coulter, D. (2001). Anatomy of hatha yoga: A manual for students, teachers, and practitioners. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. p 19-37. |
[5]
demonstrated that by the use of an extruder with a die at the exit of the extruder to extrude slabs, while the slab exits the die with one hand. He tums the slab in an alternative direction twisting the slab, but Coulter
| [5] | Coulter, D. (2001). Anatomy of hatha yoga: A manual for students, teachers, and practitioners. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. p 19-37. |
[5]
sees the human body to exhibit a lot of twist in movement and in postures, for instance when one is walking the foot and hands moves in alternating positions or opposite direction, whereby the upper part of the body would twist or tun to the direction of the foot forward to create a balance. When a person turns the upper part of the body to the side, there is a twist at the waist. The body shows a lot of twisting postures at the various joints which include asymmetrical postures that are not pure side bends. Scott
| [6] | Scott, Marylin. (2009). oil painter’s: bible An Essential reference for the practicing Artist. Chartwell. |
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also demonstrated twisting by putting together coloured strips of slabs, piled together and turn it round for the colours to go off their straight line, thereby forming twist of coloured strips. Which I would put forward and back as clay marbling.
In the area of architecture, Vollers
| [7] | Vollers, K. (2001). Twist & build: creating non-orthogonal architecture. New York, USA 010 Publishers. p. 17. |
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have designed storey buildings by incorporating twisted columns and twisted metal stair cases to high heights on a small land area.
Weaving is achieved in ceramics by the use of coils, which is simply the in-and-out movement of coils around clay stakes termed as plain weave or basket weave by Tod
| [8] | Tod, O. (2012). The joy of hand weaving: Courier Corporation. P 58. |
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. The difference between cane basket weave and the clay basket weave is that, cane does not give a single unit joint as in the case of clay. This type of weave, the in-and-out, is predominant with hairstyle plating and commonly called braided weave.
Art is a form of human expression and the reflection of the ideology of the society it comes from or that of the artist and Creativity is thought of as being constructive, productive behaviour that can be seen in action or accomplishment
| [9] | Victor, l. and W. Lambert, W. B. (1982) Creativity and mental growth: New York, USA: Millan Publishing co. Inc. p 15-20. |
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. Art therefore is in close communion with the spirit of the people it comes from, it reveals the people life and their feeling with the greatest finesse and richness and the significant reaction to nature and the physical reality. Many a times elevated to the symbolic reality, the understanding of symbols, is integrated in the appreciation of sacred and traditional art, for symbols manifest both truth and beauty, through their teaching and meanings can be sacred. Burckhardt
| [9] | Victor, l. and W. Lambert, W. B. (1982) Creativity and mental growth: New York, USA: Millan Publishing co. Inc. p 15-20. |
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said, Art is a skill in making or doing that which is socially used or intended as stimulus and guide to satisfactory aesthetic expression often along with other ends or functions, especially in such a way that the perceived stimuli, that is, the meanings they suggest or both are felt as beautiful, pleasant, interesting, emotionally moving or otherwise valuable as object of direct experience, in addition to any instrumental value they may have. Also, products of such skill; this includes every product of the arts, socially recognized as having aesthetic function such as architecture, music etc. whether or not a particular product is considered to be beautiful or otherwise meritorious. Briefly, art is a skill in providing sensory and other stimuli to satisfactory aesthetic experience. It is the tangible representation or the expression of one's imagination. Sparshott
| [10] | Sparshott, F. E. (2014) The theory of the arts. Princeton University Press. P2-15. |
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holds that, Art is the expression of one's inner feeling through a medium of expression, for Dewey is not for externalizing the internal it is not strictly pressing out what was present in complete, pre-existed forms, as opined by Levi and Ralph,
| [11] | Levi, W. R and Ralph, A. S. (1991). Art Education; A critical Necessity: USA, Board of trustees of the university of Illinois, p 136. |
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it is an emotional discharge, that is the discharge of our impulsive behaviour, the act of expressing inner agitation which must be clarified through a medium.
This expression of art as conceived by low
| [12] | Low, D. B. (2000). Merleau-Ponty's last vision: a proposal for the completion of the visible and the invisible. Northwestern University Press. p. 13-27. |
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has a metaphysical tinge to the claims that the lenses of art must be recognised internally before being expressed for external consumption This inner recognition is very much like Maslow's peak expression which has to be conceived as myths of longing and experience, which are the ingrained of the artistic medium as the communicable expression of the artist in our arsenal of concept.
Creativity is the instinctive will power or the urge to explore, investigate, discover and display ones hidden abilities and ideas, in the translation of these abilities and ideas into tangible object of art. This natural instinct of man plays an important role in the development of creativity. The most important factor which would influence creative development is the prevailing environmental conditions. The environment in which a person finds him or herself to a very large extend would be a factor to the growth of creativity, if the environment is supportive of creativity the individuals creative urge would keep rising and developing but without the support of such an environment this ability would keep declining. According to Viktor and Lambert
| [13] | Victor, l. and W. Lambert, W. B. (1982) Creativity and mental growth: New York, USA: Millan Publishing co. Inc. p 15-20. |
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, we should not be troubled about motivating ourselves, for creative behaviour, what we should be aware of, what are the psychological and physical restriction that the environment puts in the way of the developing person to exhibit his / her own natural curiosity and exploring behaviour. Creativity brings about variations, divergent views, alternative approach, therefore varied solutions to a single problem. According to Morgan
| [14] | Morgan R. C. (1996). Art into ideas: essays on conceptual art: United States of America: Cambridge University press, p 13 – 20. |
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in his book, art into ideas, whether creativity is gifted or must be leant, says, genius is the talent or natural gift which gives the rule to art, art and creativity have always been closely entwined. For years, the art has been the bastions for creativity, and often art experiences and creativity have meant the same thing. However, with the increasing interest in creativity and the great number of research studies in this area. It is becoming quite clear that it is possible to have an art programme not automatically creative in nature. As creativity is becoming of vital concern to many people, we need to understand the process involved in developing the creative thinking abilities of artist. There is no doubt that this area will be of increasing concern in the future as society turns towards the unknown. Art can play an important part in this field. In fact, art and creativity have always been closely entwined, the intensive experience in the arts should be considered a basic tool for education, to promote it, is of interest to increasing numbers of people in the arts. The insatiable nature of man's curiosity, his inventiveness, his intellectual athleticism makes him versatile. it is pre-eminently the task of art practitioners to induct people into the field and nurture their creativity to preserved and indeed enhanced future practice. The activity which generates an artistic experience is the activity of consciousness. It rules out the theory of art which places its origin in a sensation or emotions in man's psychical nature. Its origin lies in his nurture as a thinking being. It also rules it out from intellect as an origin and makes it something to do concept. These theories may be considered as being protest against the other, for consciousness, it is a level of experience intermediate between the psychic and the intellectual art, can be referred to as either of these levels as a way to say that it is not referable to the other. Collingwood,
| [15] | Collingwood, R. G. (1955). The Principles of Art. (1938). Clarendon. |
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. Hauser
| [16] | Hauser, A. (2011). The sociology of art: Routledge, Chicago, USA p. 94-98. |
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in his book, the sociology of art, stated that the production of works of art is depended on a socio-historical process on a number of diverse factors. Which is determined by nature and culture, geography and race, time and place, biology and psychology, economic and social class, none of these assertions in them consistently in the same sense; each acquires its particular meaning according to the context in which it appears with the other factor of development. The constituent parts of an artistic whole work, whether it may be an objective product or a subjective one or experience belongs partly to a class of natural, constant or a relatively constant phenomena and partly to the class of cultural, social and historical change of phenomena. Creativity in a nut shell consists of two factors namely variable and invariable factors, in a process of creative exploration the factors involve are dependent are independent of each other. These factors are more intangible and expressed without words, such as emotions and consciousness. Emotional stress can influence creativity, which could be considered by the level of pain, sadness, grief anger, love and happiness that the artist experienced during certain periods of time. Creativity can also be affected by personal enthusiasm and interest, the ability to select the point of interest in a given scene is difficult to the untrained eye, but it is enhanced by training
The ability to break traditional boundaries in term of ideas, rules, patterns, etc., by deviating from conventionalities and creating meaningful new ideas, forms, methods and interpretations, says the main concept of creativity. It is of great interest for the artists to know that, art should be seen as a subjective expression rather than having connotative agenda, requiring a medium or an object of expression.
3. Materials and Method
In the production of ceramic wares several techniques and methods are available to the Artist to employ, singularly or in combination. The two main categories of ceramic wares fabrication known are hand formation and wheel/machine formation; there is also the two main arena of production in the field of ceramics namely the studio arena and industrial arena and each of these call for different approach and production techniques. This project work shall put emphasis on the studio arena. In studio ceramics much of the production centres around house hold pieces such as utensils, pots of all kinds, monumental ceramics and some ceramic sculpture, whiles the industrial arena production, centres around buildings or structural accessories like bricks, tiles, sinks, water closet etc. This chapter would discuss the methods and processes used in the execution of the project pieces and explanations of the concepts and philosophy behind the creation of the project piece.
Nature as the store of knowledge and the source of man's inspiration for his developmental needs, man discovers what nature has in store. Whether a scientist or an artist, Shlomo
| [3] | Shlomo, G. S. (2006). Art myth and Deviance: New castle, UK, Cambridge scholars publishing, p 35. |
[3]
has put forward that, humans are creative species. Whether in science, politics, business, technology or the arts, we depend on our creativity almost as much as anything else to meet the demands of daily life. Ideas are gotten from our everyday activity and interaction with nature. It is necessary for the artist or designer to reinspire himself or herself throughout the process, for inspiration keeps the idea for a design moving. One should be aware of the tendency to get tunnel vision, for instance, if you are a ceramist to produce bowls, do not exclusively seek inspirations from the field of ceramics or clay works only but look into other areas like architecture, wood work, painting, music etc. because inspiration can come from anywhere for the project. The creative expression of one’s imagination through a medium an idea, an idea, also is a thought conceived in the mind, when one seeks to produce an artifact or a clue as to how to come out with a product. Duncan
| [17] | Duncan, kelvin (2014) the ideas book: London, UK, lid publishing, p 22. |
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, wrote that an idea is an outcome of a different approach to a problem. The idea of the artist is coming from the climbing plant. The artist got fascinated at how a string of a plant would attach itself to a tree for support to grow and grows spirally around the tree trunk, for example liana, vines, yam stock etc. Then the question which came to mind was, how can this climbing plant survive without the support of other plants, with several experimentation with clay by forming coils and winding it round a cylinder and forming a meandering shape on the table and allowing them to dry up, just to replicate what was seen in nature, taking a strips of slab and twisting the edges to face different direction which were also allowed to dry vertical, Some of the twisted clay strips were rounded to form circles and the other coils were woven by using three pairs of clay ropes (coils). Afterwards several sketches drawn and some selected to execute the project works.
Figure 1. Source of inspiration.
Figure 1 above is a tree truck which inspired me to come out with this twisting and weaving technique. The following are selected sketches used to develop the basic unit or the building unit or the project execution.
Figure 2. Selected Sketches.
After several manipulations by twisting, turning and rolling of the strips of clay slabs, a technique evolved, termed by the artist as twisting, then basic units were developed and used for the building as shown by the following
figures 3 and 4.
Figure 3. Selected Sketches.
Figure 4. Selected Sketches.
Prototype pieces of the works were made to ascertain the possibility of the clay to survive the twisting and to see how effective joining can be done; after successful prototype works were done, large pieces were then built.
In the execution of these large pieces, a lot of planning and thinking went into the process.
First of all, how to build with a concept to give meaning to the works to be produced. After having been inspired by a climbing plant and conceived the idea, realising this idea was the next thing to deal with.
The field of ceramic art has several production techniques but categorized into two broad areas namely industrial or mass production and studio techniques. This project would limit itself to the studio production techniques, basically all the industrial techniques are practiced in the studio, when these techniques are mechanized or automated to eliminate or reduce human interventions to produce mass numbers within shorter lengths of time then it becomes an industrial technique, which therefore means as and when a studio practiced technique evolves and automated to facilitate mass production there comes an industrial technique, for this reason one can say that ceramic production technique is any distinct means by which clay can be fashioned or fabricated into products. As stated by Baharloud, Eshan et al
| [18] | Baharloud, & Menges, A. (2013, September). Generative Agent-Based Design Computation ln eCAADe 20I 3: Computation and Performance-Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Education and research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe, Delft, The Netherlands, September 18-20, 2013. |
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that some ceramic architectural designs can be produced by digital fabrication.
In the studio production, the techniques employed basically are pinching, coiling, slab work and throwing; these techniques are also referred to as hand forming techniques. The formations of studio products are mostly by the hands by employing one of the above techniques. Pinching is considered as the earliest known and a fundamental forming technique. The use of the fingers to fashion out articles by pressing the clay to a desire shape, as defined by Peterson
| [19] | Peterson, B. (2011). Artistry and Aesthetics: Pottery Beyond Mere Utility. (Peterson, S., & Peterson, J. (2003). The craft and art of clay: a complete potter’s handbook Lawence King Publishing. p32). |
[19]
states that by indenting the thumb finger into a ball of clay with 1cm base thickness and squeezing the clay between the thumb and other fingers with a firm and even strokes, repeatedly to achieve thin and even walls is pinching. Kathy
| [20] | Kathy, T. (2000). Hand built Ceramics: Pinching, Coiling, Molding. Larks Books. p. 105-107. |
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also defines pinching as a simple manipulation of a fist-size lump of clay by indenting the thumb into the Centre and pressing to make thin the clay walls and shaping it desirably.
Coiling is the winding of clay ropes (coils) around and spirally stacking the coils to a height and adding new coils as necessary, Kathy
| [20] | Kathy, T. (2000). Hand built Ceramics: Pinching, Coiling, Molding. Larks Books. p. 105-107. |
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. Coiling is the rolling of clay on a flat surface or rubbing clay between the two palms. This hand build technique was largely and greatly displayed by south-west Americans and the pre-historic Jomon of Japan as well as other neighbouring cultures, where patterns were stamped on the joints of coiled build vessels as done on the Anasazi vessels of the south-west Americans. Peterson
| [19] | Peterson, B. (2011). Artistry and Aesthetics: Pottery Beyond Mere Utility. (Peterson, S., & Peterson, J. (2003). The craft and art of clay: a complete potter’s handbook Lawence King Publishing. p32). |
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added that slabs are either cut out directly from a block of clay or rolled out to the desired thickness and work on, at the soft state or allowed to get stiff depending on the taste of the artist. The technique the artist developed and adapted, which he termed as twisting was borne out of the combination of coiling (rolling) and slab making where as a strip of a slab is twisted and enhanced the alternation of the edges of the slabs.
These slabs can be also be drawn directly from a bar of clay with a pre-shaped metal, with a rectangular dimensioned sort of turning tool.
3.4. Tools and Equipment Used in Clay Preparation
Shovel or Spade: - used in collecting the clay from the pit
Wheel barrow: - used in carrying the clay to the working bench
Pug mill: - used in the breaking and blending clay lumps into homogenous state
The clay is put into the clay pit and prepared in batches for use. The preparation of the clay starts at the clay pit, where water is supplied to the pit by the connection of water holes (pipe) to a water tap to dampen the clay which has completely dried tp. When the clay is dampened enough, it is carried and hipped on a working bench. The clay on the bench is cut into small sizeable lumps (palm full) and drop into the machine called pug mill to break and blend the clay into homogenous state, this machine has a rotating shaft with tooth projections enclosed by two semi-circular thick metal sheets taped at one end to exit the clay in bars. After the clay has been extruded as clay bars, they are stored boxes lined with polythene sheets, well covered up in air tight manner to prevent the clay bars from losing their moistness to the atmosphere and subsequently drying up. At this stage clay is ready for use but in a situation where the clay is not plastic enough, it is allowed to stay under the polythene sheet covering for some time to assume plasticity termed as ageing.
3.6. Production of Basic Units or Design Units
Tools used to produce the basic units:
Sack-board: - it is a wooden board rap with a jute sack
Rolling pin:- a cylindrical wooden bar to help spread out clay form clay slab
Guide sticks: - two equal strips of wood on which the pin rolls to determine the thickness of the slab.
The slab making procedure;
Step 1:- knead the clay properly to get rid of all possible air pockets
Step 2:- put the clay on the sack board and spread it out on the board with your palms,
Step3:- put the guide sticks on both sides of the clay which are 15mm thick
Step 4:- take the rolling pin and press to spread out the clay to get to the guide sticks, roll outward and inward to spread out the clay to the thickness of the guide stick
Step 5: with an extra piece of clay, fill up the top and bottom portion which would roll out narrow roll over the slab again to level out and merge properly these extra bits, there you have a slab
Step 6: marking out of the required size of the slab strips on the slab, which is 5cm wide apart and cutting them
Step 7:- after having your strips of slab, now with one end of the strip is twisted, rolled out portion after portion several times to get the whole of the strip twisted, if the intended shape to be produced has curves, then accordingly put the twisted strips into the required curves' These basic units are the building blocks for the construction of any indented design as shown by the following figures.
Figure 7. Basic unit vertical.
Figure 8. Basic unit rounded.
3.7. Construction of Forms
To fabricate any desired form out of these twisted strips of slabs, first one has to determine the curvatures of the form as well as the straight lines, most importantly the curvatures. Then get your base at the leather hard stage, now score the edges of the base all round, if the form is a circular one, no external support is needed for the construction but continue to build, mounting like the normal slab building; To start building with the vertical twisted slab strips, you need to give an external support to the very first unit to stay upright to about the fifth one to be able to stay on its’ own, make sure you score both edges of the units coming into contact. Repeat the process until the whole base is covered round. This procedure is repeated at the next level to a desired heigh as shown by the
figure 9: below.
Figure 9. External support for start.
It is the order of arrangement of the various components or the constituent parts of a large ceramic piece or a monumental piece to have it appear in its’ complete form The situation that accounts for the building of pieces in units or sections varies from artist to artist. Some ceramic wares cannot be produced as a single unit such as a tea pot, murals, tiles and such intricate wares as mentioned by Glenn
| [21] | Glenn C. N., Burkett R. (2002). Ceramics: a potter's handbook. U. S. A. Thompson Leaming Inc., p. 149- 200. |
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. The firing facilities available to the artist also accounts for the number of units or sections a piece is to be put into, the functionality of the piece, easy of transportation, ease of installation, available space and height. This idea came about as a result of some French painters who described their collage works as an assemblage of different materials particularly Jean Dubuffet around the 1950s. Vishny
| [22] | Vishny, M. (2009). Sculpture Microsoft Student 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation. |
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The production of ceramic wares in units or section can also arise as a result of the inability of commissioned artist to produce in-situ (to produce at the site) compels the artist to produce at a more convenient site and transported to site for installation. The limitation created by the size of the kiln available to the artist or the inability of the artist to do firing in-situ irrespective of the of the piece constructed. The next option available to the artist is to do the construction in sections. The popular way to create these sections is to build the full height of the piece intended and then cut the piece into the respective heights at the leather hard stage, and then build an inner short wall to create a step to guard the mounting section from sliding off, it’s position. This method mostly limits the sectionalization into two sections particularly for vertical rising heights but no limit to horizontal or crawling lengths. To go beyond two sections in vertical heights, the artist employed a technique; he terms as continuous building by placing a sheet of polyethene to serve as a separator between the first sections and the next section for continuous building, first of all a step is created as shown by the
figure 10; below.
A polyethene sheet is placed on the wall of the piece to prevent the next wall from sticking to the previous section underneath thereafter building continuous. The figure below shows a polythene sheet in place at sectional joint
figure 11 Mounted joint.
Figure 11. Mounted joint with separator.
This piece of work was constructed from curved strips of slabs mentioned earlier as the basic units or the building blocks. Four curved strips joined together as shown in
figure 12, as the base and starting point of the spiral web piece.
Figure 12. Spiral web base.
Fabrication Processes (Spiral web)
1) Several rounded twisted units are formed and allowed to get leather hard
2) With your base as shown by
figure 12 above, score the top with your hand fork and apply slip on the base.
3) Score the top of the next four rounded units
4) Place the rounded units on the base, one on each of the base units.
5) Press down each of the units to stick and join properly on to the base
6) Repeat the process and continue to build to attain your desired height
Figure 13. The Spiral web.
The spiral web (2015) hand-built height: seven feet, colour: pink and white Slip painted finishing, electric fired (1100'C) produced by Abdul-Rauf Yussif
Sun struggle (2015), hand built two piece unit with height three (3) feet, Bisque fired (l100oC), Colour, Green and yellow spray finished. Produced by Abdul -Rauf Yussif.
Figure 15. Sun struggle (monumental version).
Sun struggle (2015) hand built, three piece unit with height eight (8) feet, Bisque fired (l100oC), Colour, pink spray finished. Produced by Abdul -Rauf Yussif.
Life columns (2015) hand built one piece unit with height two (2) feet, Bisque fired (l100oC), Colourred and white finished in slip paint. Produced by Abdul -Rauf Yussif.
The Arc (Ihe curve of life) Constructed with vertical twisted slabs
The Arc (2015) hand built, Bisque fired (l100oC), rise height, 4 feet and span length 8 feet Colour red and white finished in slip paint. Produced by Abdul -Rauf Yussif
The Arc construction procedure
Step 1: roll out slabs (tiles)
Step2: Cut out slabs into rectangular ties (a number that would fill up the arc)
Step 3: Allow the tile to get leather hard
Step 4: With the help of a rope with one end secured or nailed in place, make an improvised pair of compasses, create a semi-circle or an arc.
Step 5: Arrange the tiles along the constructed arc to follow suit, correct flow of the tiles would form V-shaped gaps between the tiles as shown by the
figure 18 below
Figure 18. V-shapes formed on the arc line.
Step 6: Fill in the gaps between the tiles by measuring and cutting out the required shapes from surplus tiles of the same hardiness, in other words cut out slab wedges
Step 7: Join one side of the wedge to the first tile and the subsequent ones, the gaps would be filled.
Step 8: measure out about one inch border around as painted white in the
figure 17.
Step 9: With your building unit (twisted strips of slabs) ready, equal to the length of the tiles score and join the units the tile
Step 10: Repeat the last step on the other side and continue to join the units alternatively for sides to join, rise and meet at the top to form an arc.
Figure 19. Unit sample tile of the arc.
Figure 20. The Arc (twisted oval form).
The Arc (2015), hand built, bisque fired at 11000C, Rise height 4 feet span length 8 feet Coloured black, finished in slip paint Produced by Abdul-Rauf Yussif.
Figure 21. Fettling and dress on the trunk and nest.
Figure 22. Trunk and nest.
Trunk and Nest (2015), thrown and hand built, bisque fired at 11000C, height 4.5 feet, Coloured black, white and red finished in slip paint Produced by Abdul- Rauf Yussif.
Figure 23. The mirage Bottle (basket weave).
Figure 24. The mirage Bottle (braided weave).
The mirage Bottle (2015), hand built, bisque fired at 11000C, height 5 feet 11 inches, Coloured red, finished in slip paint Produced by Abdul- Rauf Yussif.
It is the final dressing an artist or a manufacturer gives to an artefact or a product. This puts the product ready for consumption by way of sales or otherwise. Jewitt
| [23] | Jewitt, J. (2004). Taunton's complete illustrated guide to finishing (Vol. 70712). Taunton Press. p 2 65. |
[23]
is with the opinion that, finishing is the name preferred on the final details making stages of a products, it does not only prevent the product from stains, damages and other mishaps but also makes it look richer and deeply valued, add luster and some personal dimensions to its outlook. Margolis
| [24] | Margolis, E., & Laurence, S. (1999). Concepts: core readings. THE MIT Press. |
[24]
says that, the final attention given to a product to complete its make-up to make it rich with diverse appeal to the consumer. There are so many finishing techniques employed in ceramics, but put into two major groups, namely glazed products and unglazed ones. The choice of which style to finish a product is the prerogative of the artist but certain functions of the product would call for definite finishing on the product such as glazing This project limited itself to the unglazed finishing techniques available, such as coloured slips or engobe, stains, manganese touch, painting etc., apart from the above mentioned slips and paint applications on smooth surfaces, surface textures can be created as finishing as demonstrated by Anderson
| [25] | Anderson, T. (2008). Surface Decoration: Finishing Techniques. American Ceramic Society. P 3-6. |
[25]
another form of surface texturing is surface cracking whereby the surface of a thrown pot is subjected to heat to harden it a bit and pushed outward to create cracks. This project is finished in unglazed techniques largely in coloured slips, with few manganese touch and oil painting. Before a successful finish is accomplished, a well and thoroughly cleaned up and dressing of product surfaces (fettling) must be achieved first, to have a good finished.
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