Patterned Pottery : A Collection of Donut Vases Norah McCullagh Ceramics 2 Class of 2025
For years I thought the only art I was “good” at was painting, as it was the main medium I was exposed to as a child. My grandmother is an artist, and growing up taught me how to paint on different mediums like fabrics, rocks, watercolor paper, etc. I loved this hobby, and always looked forward to the afternoons I would spend in her art room. As I got older I wasn’t able to spend as much time in her art room, but when I came to Trinity the art room here gave me the same feeling of comfort as my grandmother’s did. The Trinity art room also gave me an opportunity to experiment with even more mediums, like clay. I learned how to create unique ceramic pieces on the wheel, something I had never done before. However, while I loved creating with clay, I longed to add elements of painting to my style. So, I made that my goal with my Ceramics 2 collection. I created donut vases, a challenge in and of itself, but also added a unique glaze design to each one. I didn’t paint a gorgeous landscape, or intricate portrait on these vases, but instead opted to experiment with size and shape variation with the glaze, a skill that ended up being more technical than had thought. To do this, I bisque fired the donut vases, then painted a checkered design on each vase. I then waxed over the glazed checkered design, and dipped the vase in white. This allowed each vase to have concise lines between the colored squares and white squares. I used the same three colored glazes for the whole collection, along with a standard white dipping glaze. I’m usually never completely satisfied with my artwork, as I always feel there’s something more I could have done, but I don’t feel this way with this collection. I’ve been itching to create this collection for over a year, and now that it’s completed I am extremely satisfied with it. I will continue to create ceramic pieces and expand my knowledge of art next year in IB art, and can’t wait to learn even more unique glaze techniques.