Ceramics Basics
A basic pottery technique where a vessel is formed by hand, starting with a ball of clay and gradually pinching the walls to create the desired shape
Pinch Pot
A Surrealist poet who is considered the leader of the surrealist movement
Andre Breton
A three dimensional art form where artists shape or mold materials like clay, metal, or wood into tangible, 3D objects, representing figures, ideas or concepts
Sculptures
An element of art that is two-dimensional, flat or limited to height and width
Shape
A technique for making 3D Sculptures from pulped or pasted paper and binders such as glue or plaster.
Papier Mache
A liquid slurry of clay and water
Slip
A leading Belgian Surrealist painter who placed ordinary, everyday objects in strange, dreamlike, and thought-provoking contexts to challenge how people perceive reality. He often used doors, hats, masks and apples as common motifs in his art.
Rene Magritte
The Japanese art or process of folding squares or paper into representational shapes
Origami
When elements of art like line, color and shape are repeated within an artwork to achieve specific aesthetics.
Repetition
A textile art form where two sets of threads, warp and weft, are interlaced at right angles to create fabric or cloth
Weaving
A thermally insulated chamber or oven that uses electricity to heat materials for firing pottery, ceramics and other materials using precise temperature controls
Kiln (Electric)
A leading figure of the Surrealist art movement, his iconic painting of melting clocks, and his flamboyant, eccentric public persona is what he is best known for.
Salvador Dali
A type of visual art that combines more than one medium, method or material
Mixed Media
The perceived surface quality of a work of art, through touch, visually or both
Texture
Materials made from fibers.
Textiles
A technique used in pottery to join two pieces of clay together by creating a rough surface on the edges to be attached, then applying a liquid clay slurry to promote adhesion
Scratch and Attach
Swedish born American sculptor who is best known for his public art installations, typically featuring large replicas of everyday objects. Largely considered a “Pop- Artist” who commonly referenced food and other consumer items in his work.
Claes Oldenburg
Objects made from clay, like pots, bowls or vases and fired at a high temperature to become hardened.
Ceramics or Pottery
The use of differing visual elements like colors, shapes and textures to create contrast and interest within an artwork.
Variety
An apparatus for making fabric by weaving yarn or thread
Loom
An ancient pottery making technique that involves creating forms without a pottery wheel, using the hands, fingers and simple tools
Handbuilding
A famous psychiatrist who studied the unconscious mind.
Sigmund Freud
An art and literary movement that emphasizes the unconscious mind and dreams, often resulting in strange, illogical and dreamlike scenes.
Surrealism
Characterized by a reliance on mathematical shapes such as triangles, squares, circles and lines to organize space.
Geometric Shapes
Fold the top-right and top-left corners down diagonally so they meet at the center line, forming a triangular roof shape.
Hat Fold
The state where the clay has completely dried out and lost its moisture becoming extremely fragile and crumbly and ready for bisque firing
Bone Dry Stage
A Native American potter from Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico known for her black on white or “polychrome” decorative ceramics made using traditional techniques
Lucy Lewis
A unique pottery technique where strands of horse hair are applied to a hot, freshly fired pot, causing the hair to carbonize and leave a distinctive, random, dark pattern on the surface
Horse Hair Pottery
The use of concrete objects, colors, figures, or settings to represent abstract ideas or emotions.
Symbolism
The application of paper-folding principles, crease patterns, and geometry to design deployable or shape-shifting systems.
Compliant Mechanism
Unfired pottery that has been shaped but not yet fired in a kiln
Greenware
A young up and coming artist from the “Sky City” Pueblo community of Acoma who uses traditional techniques including horse hair pottery as a fourth generation Acoma potter.
Eric Louis
An art movement from the 1950s and 1960s that referenced popular culture like advertising, comics, mass produced objects or celebrities, and challenged notions of traditional art-making.
Pop Art
A reoccurring element or theme, within an artwork or series of artworks, this can be conceptual (meaning) or visual.
Motif
Foundational geometric base origami fold, used to kickstart more complex models, most famously this traditional Japanese helmet
Samurai Fold
building pottery by rolling clay into long, rope-like coils and stacking them on top of each other to form the walls of a vessel
Coil method
A 1960s German-born American sculptor known for her pioneering work in materials such as latex, fiberglass, plastics and other fibers which she used in a minimalist manner, to create abstract sprawling installations that paved the way for females in the sculpting and fiber art world
Eva Hesse
Artworks that adhere to established cultural, historical, or religious traditions, this includes styles and techniques that have been passed down through generations, usually tied to regions or cultural practices
Traditional Arts
The lengthwise threads that are stretched and held taut on a loom before the weft threads are interlaced to create fabric
Warp Thread
a handbuilding technique where flat, rolled-out clay pieces are cut and joined to create 3D forms
Slab Method
A village in New Mexico which has four communities inhabited by the Native American Pueblo tribe, it is unique in its location, sitting atop a 357 ft tall mesa-and age, being continuously occupied since 1150 AD by the Pueblo peoples.
Acoma or "Sky City"
Fine art whose material consists of natural or synthetic fiber and other components, such as fabric or yarn.
Fiber Arts
The yarns that run horizontally or crosswise across the fabric, while the warp threads run vertically
Weft Thread
A stage in the drying process where the clay is partially dried but still damp enough to be worked with
Leather Stage
Pottery that has been undergone its first firing, resulting in a hard, porous, and unglazed state, ready for glazing or decorative applications
Bisqueware
A stage of clay that has partially dried becoming stiff but still workable, allowing for trimming, carving, and adding details before it becomes too dry and brittle
Leather Hard Stage
a colored slip-like paint made of clay and pigments that is applied to greenware or bisqueware to create designs
Underglaze
A liquid mixture of powdered minerals that is applied to a ceramic piece and fired to create a glassy, protective and decorative coating.
Glaze