Ceramics

Clay remembers everything. Every thumbprint, every join made too dry, every wall left thicker on one side than the other is still there weeks later when the kiln reaches temperature, and that is when it announces itself. Ceramics is the one area of study where the material has an opinion, where a piece can be perfect on Friday and in four pieces on Monday, and where the last stage of the process is one you cannot watch and cannot undo.

This note follows a piece from wet clay to fired object: the clay bodies and what each is for, the five states clay passes through and what can be done at each, hand-building, throwing and casting, the shrinkage and drying rules that decide whether the work survives, firing, and then the whole separate discipline of surface. The specification asks here for non-functional artefacts using both form and surface quality, which means the pot does not have to hold anything. It has to be worth looking at from every side.