Caltech Ceramics
Spring term, I took Ceramics for the first time. It’s held every Wednesday night from 7-10pm at the neighboring Polytechnic School. The first few weeks, we practiced making bowls, plates, and other shapes on the ceramics wheel, and now it’s finally time to put our creations into the kiln for firing and glazing!
For the glazing, there are many buckets of glaze to choose from (the yellow and white buckets below). The colors of the glazes are marked, but you never really know how it will turn out in the kiln.
After dipping our piece into the glaze, we can choose to decorate it using brushes and iron, copper, or cobalt glazes. This time, I made a cup and two bowls, and I just dipped them in glaze without decorating them since it was my first time glazing.
Here they are right after I’ve dipped them into the glazes – the color of the unfired glaze looks pretty different from how it looks after it goes into the kiln (below)!
I’ve really enjoyed taking Ceramics this term, and I’d recommend it to anyone who comes to Caltech! It’s a great way to destress after a long day.
