Response

I agree with Sarah. When I took ceramics in high school and even middle school, I never stopped to think about where the clay was coming from. All I knew is that we received the clay in the big, plastic wrapped cubes and we always had more than enough to last. I like how the author starts the paper by explaining that clay is one of the materials that can survive from the earliest of time periods. It’s amazing to think about how something so soft and pliable can turn into something so enduring. By the clay lasting it allows people today to see what life was like in the past. We can learn about daily life, burials, and even the kind of tools people in the past used.

The author explains that even though clay covers one-third of the earth it wasn’t as easy to get as it is today. Unlike students, who have all the clay they need for their projects in school, the aborigines of the Amphlett Islands had to make a semi-annual trip. They were dependent of the clay for the ceramics they made. Without that clay they wouldn’t have been able to complete their trade.

This article made me realize that ceramics is not just a hobby. Ceramics provide people with many things like money, information on the past, tools to make everyday life easier, to just name a few.

Ceramics

Before reading this article, I can say that I never really thought about where the clay I used was coming from. In my early school years, the clay we used always came in large cube pieces which we then dispersed among all the students. It wasn’t until my senior year of high school that I actually took part in making the clay for my ceramics class which was an interesting experience to say the least. With all this clay at my fingertips, I never really thought of where it actually came from until this class and this reading. It’s understandable that clay is a huge portion of our earth, but I never thought about the lengths people went to get this amazing material. I can honestly say, I don’t know if I would climb to the top of a mountain or take a day trip to gather the clay necessary for an entire year. It just seems like so much work, but I do understand that this journey was the only way to preserve potters livelihoods’ in ancient times. My only thought is, with vast quantities basically under our feet, why were there not closer places for these people to find clay?

Class Readings and Reading Responses

Hello,

I've posted the first class reading which you can download as a PDF by clicking the link to the right. Your responses to the reading are due (posted here on the main page) on Wednesday. In order to post to the blog you'll have to accept the invitation to become a blog author (sent to your PSU email). Responses should be a minimum of 200 words. Please feel to digress from or elaborate on the readings, or to reflect the ideas presented in the reading back onto your experiences in class.

happy posting!

Welcome to the course page for Art 280, section 2 : beginning ceramics at Penn State, Fall '09.
This page is for use by the members of this class and others interested in discussions related to the content and work produced in the course. As well as providing a selected list of sources for looking at art made from or realted to ceramics and clay, the page will provide a forum for posting and discussing 5 course related readings (essays chapters or text excerpts), and for posting images of, and discussion about the work produced.

enjoy!