Introduction to Wheel throwing
carthage college, 2017
ART 2500
This course is an introduction to making functional vessels on the potters’ wheel as expressive art. In this class, we examined historic and contemporary examples of pottery as a basis for understanding how the wheel-thrown vessel can be created as expressive art. We focused on physical throwing skills, three-dimensional design concepts as they relate to the functional ceramic vessel, creative problem-solving, and the technical information necessary to support an understanding of forming, surfacing, glazing and firing pottery. With these processes, students learned the foundations of artistic self-expression, practice making design choices for clear expression, and conceptual and aesthetic analysis through discussion of works of art in critique. Students used high-fire materials and learned to load and fire electric and gas kilns.