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Sea Shell Pinch Pot Trio<br />
Jasmine Ali<br />
Grade: 10<br />
School:<br />
<strong>Art</strong> Teacher:<br />
Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & <strong>Art</strong> and Performing <strong>Art</strong>s, Manhattan<br />
Ingrid Butterer<br />
Fired and glazed ceramic<br />
STUDENT: <strong>Art</strong>work has the strongest<br />
impact when the artist’s identity<br />
is embedded in the work. For this<br />
reason, most of my artwork reflects<br />
the emotions, memories and events<br />
that make up my life. I incorporate<br />
the important people in my life and<br />
their stories in my artwork. I have<br />
become interested in sculpture<br />
because the idea of creating a threedimensional<br />
thing from nothing is<br />
captivating and empowering.<br />
I was determined to perfect these<br />
three pinch-pot shells and fell in love<br />
with clay in the process. Ms. Butterer’s<br />
inspiring words about working with<br />
clay motivated me to make my best<br />
work. I faced the problem of achieving<br />
the best glaze combination for the<br />
shells. Learning that experimentation<br />
is a big part of ceramics makes me<br />
want to continue working with the<br />
medium in the future.<br />
TEACHER: This unit included exploring<br />
the qualities of clay and reading<br />
Native American creation myths and<br />
recent scientific research indicating<br />
clay as the source of life. It also<br />
included watching professional<br />
artists create pinch-pot forms and<br />
conducting written and verbal<br />
student self-assessment based on the<br />
definition of “quality” and “craftship.”<br />
This was a very successful unit<br />
reflecting several strands in the<br />
Blueprint for Teaching and<br />
Learning in Visual <strong>Art</strong>s. Jasmine’s<br />
piece was exceptional. The artist<br />
maintained the essential pinch-pot<br />
structure but also transformed the<br />
plastic qualities of clay in such a<br />
way that the trio reads as authentic<br />
shells rather than a lazy caricature or<br />
stereotype. Ceramics is an involved<br />
and lengthy process from greenware,<br />
to bisqueware, to glazed finished<br />
pieces. It requires careful decision<br />
making at each step. Jasmine put in<br />
many extra hours weighing decisions<br />
at each phase to reach the form that<br />
fits the learning objective and at the<br />
same time reflects her personal best.<br />
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