Ceramic Hand Building

This semester I chose to do ceramic hand-building as an art elective. Apart from helping me work on my artistic skills and creativity, doing this course has also allowed me to improve other important skills such as time-management and problem-solving. It was important to be able to stay organised and manage time well so I could meet the deadline to hand in a pot that was finished and so I wasn’t falling behind with the visual diary work. There were criteria set to create texture on the pot which, while sometimes proved a challenge, it overall helped my thinking skills and pushed me to develop a creative and more interesting design. I had opportunities throughout the course to explore different types of art styles and experiment with different techniques I haven’t tried before. There were other challenges that came with the process of making pots including making sure to join the clay properly so there are no air bubbles which might result in the pot exploding in the kiln and having to work with the possibility that the clay might dry out. These challenges helped me with my problem-solving skills as I had to work out ways to fix them or work around them. For example, I needed to be able to work fast but also carefully, and it was important to find a balance between the two so that I could make a pot that I liked. I like the way my finished pots turned out even though I only made two out of three I still think they were successful. Overall, this elective was one which was not only fun but also allowed me to develop other useful and important skills.