Many people end up taking a Ceramics class because they want to try something new.  That is what happened to many people in this year’s Ceramics & Sculpting class at BHS; many of the students this semester had never taken any kind of ceramics class in the past and this was their first experience with it.

This year, BHS classes made a press mold. A press mold is when a material is shaped from a soft substance into a particular form or object by pressing it or by putting it into a mold. When making the press mold, students first started off with wet clay.  After the clay was wet, the student took a bowl and put it in a plastic bag so the clay wouldn’t stick and pressed it out smoothly to the shape of the bowl.

The next step in making a mold vessel is to let it sit until it’s damp; the material must not be too wet but still be able to manage.  The students removed the bowl shaped like clay and made a second bowl and then let that bowl dry.

After letting the 2 bowls dry, students placed one on top of the other and smoothed the two bowls together to make a circle.  At this point the actual shape of the vessel starts to appear.

The next step was for students to open the top and make any shape that students wanted to make- the only rule was that students had to follow the guidelines that the end result would be a vase.

After the vessels dry completely, students took time to paint it with 5-10 coats of paint.  Students had to be particularly careful because the vessel is still very fragile.

The last part is for the teacher to do the glazing.  The teacher glazes the vessels over the weekend to lock on the final project.  Ultimately, many students were very happy with the outcome of their projects.  The BHS Ceramics Press Mold projects were a big hit!