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academic question: handbuilding vs. throwing

updated fri 31 may 96

 

Vince Pitelka on thu 2 may 96

Jonathan -

My approach in teaching intro students is deeply affected by my own experience.
I learned in a program which included almost no handbuilding at all, so for my
first 15 years in clay I only did wheel work. It wasn't until I went to grad
school and wanted to do something radically different that I discovered the
great joys of handbuilding, augmenting the great joys of wheel work.

From my first experiences teaching intro ceramics a dozen years ago I have
always stressed handbuilding, and in fact my intro classes now include almost
no throwing - just a little taste where the students are only required to make
four vaguely vessel-shaped "things" on the wheel. A fair number of them
continue on to the throwing class. I agree that it is just too much to cram
into one semester - trying to do justice to both handbuilding and the wheel. I
choose to do justice to handbuilding, knowing that it will teach them a great
deal about what the clay can do between their fingers, and that it will make
learning throwing much easier should they choose to proceed. Also, in my
experience, if students learn throwing first, and are not required to learn
handbuilding, most will never give it a chance, whereas those who learn
handbuilding first often come to love the possibilities of making ceramic forms
without machines, and those that continue with throwing always become better
throwers as a result of those handbuilding skills.

Also, I am saddened that most people of my generation went through their
ceramic education learning little or nothing about tribal and Third World
ceramics. In my intro classes we always start the semester with pinch and
coil pots and lots of wet-clay surface decoration, and we burnish or terra-sig a
fair number of pieces and do oxidation and blackware bonfiring.

I too have quite a few intro students with little or no visual arts background,
and it is a challenge trying to jump-start their creative imagination. We just
had final reviews, and one girl who's entire visual content for the semester
consisted of hearts and bunnies had a terrible time understanding why I would
only give her a "B". My approach has always been to stress skilled forming in
pinch, coil, and slab, to expose them to lots of traditional and contemporary
forms through books and slides, and to encourage development of original ideas.
I let them dig for content in their own psyche. Some stick with hearts and
bunnies despite my pleas for originality and innovation. Some make reliquaries
paying tribute to beloved ancestors. Some reinterpret historical works. Some
stress pattern and decoration, avoiding personal, conceptual content, which
of course is perfectly fine. I never make my assignments so specific that they
stifle individual invention and expression.

My intro students never cease to amaze me, sometimes with their apathy and lack
of autonomy, often with their extraordinary untapped reserves of creativity and
invention, occasionally with their spontaneous expression of creative
imagination with little or no coaxing. I think clay, more than any other art
media, has the potential to break down barriers to untapped creative reserves,
but in order for that to happen, the student must be directed towards a
creative pathway without being steered along it. I hope this doesn't all
sound too preachy. I get pretty caught up in it.

- Vince
Vince Pitelka - wkp0067@tntech.edu
Appalachian Center for Crafts - Tennessee Technological University
Smithville, TN

dannon@ns1.koyote.com on thu 2 may 96

>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Jonathan -
> I agree that it is just too much to cram
>into one semester - trying to do justice to both handbuilding and the wheel. I
>choose to do justice to handbuilding, knowing that it will teach them a great
>deal about what the clay can do between their fingers, and that it will make
>learning throwing much easier should they choose to proceed. ..and we
burnish or terra-sig a
>fair number of pieces and do oxidation and blackware bonfiring.
>
>I too have quite a few intro students with little or no visual arts background,
> I never make my assignments so specific that they
>stifle individual invention and expression.
>
>My intro students never cease to amaze me, sometimes with their apathy and lack
>of autonomy, .... I think clay, more than any other art
>media, has the potential to break down barriers to untapped creative reserves,
>but in order for that to happen, the student must be directed towards a
>creative pathway without being steered along it. I hope this doesn't all
>sound too preachy. I get pretty caught up in it.
>
> - Vince
>Vince Pitelka - wkp0067@tntech.edu
>Appalachian Center for Crafts - Tennessee Technological University
>Smithville, TN
>
>

I've not taught for so long, but my experience has been very similar. It is
too much to expect that the students will do justice to both wheel and
handbuilding in one semester. So I start with handbuilding, much to the
dismay of some of the students who only came in because they wanted to learn
to throw (school has an open-door policy; a lot of adult community
participation in ceramics). But in the end most come to appreciate what
they are learning. Often when they do get to the wheel they are surprised
that it takes perseverance and more practice than what will fit into class;
they sometimes get back to handbuilding as fast as they can get there.

Everyone gets their share of apathetic students. The passivity of some is
indeed astonishing. I try to understand how anyone can sit through life, as
it were, without sucking any of the juice out, but it is not a thing that I
comprehend. There are always surprises in the other direction, though, to
make up for some of it: some come in on fire.........

I try not to stifle individual invention, but every semester I have a list
of "can't make this". no mushroom shaped salt/pepper shakers. No little
gnomes leaning against a stump. This term: no hearts, unless they were
anatomically correct...the spring term seems to be the worst for
heart-shapes (maybe it's Valentine's day?). The fall term, here, generates
a plethora of Texas-shaped Christmas tree ornaments. Sigh.

Yeah, directed toward, but not steered. Not too preachy - thought-provoking.

Dannon