Ceramics

Lower School Ceramics 

Children’s creative pottery skills come to life in art studios at the Lower School, where they fashion functional and decorative objects from clay and learn how they are glazed and fired in the kiln.

Middle & Upper School Ceramics

Under the hands-on guidance of a master ceramicist and with professional equipment, students learn techniques to produce 3D renderings in clay of original sketches, create large pieces, and explore small detailed work. They create pottery and sculpture using coil construction, pinching, slab, hand-building, wheel throwing, glaze techniques, sgraffito, and more.

Throughout the Dyker campus, display cases highlight impressive student pieces such as tea sets, pitchers, and sculptures. Students have the opportunity to further develop their style and technique in Advanced Ceramics.

Students learn a variety of ceramic skills, among them:

• Slabbing: using a roller to flatten and stretch a piece of clay
• Pinching: used to shape the clay by lightly pinching with fingers and slowly rotating the ball in the palm of the other hand
• Coiling: a method of forming rope-like pieces of clay by rolling the clay on a flat surface or using an extruder, a tool used to keep coils consistently sized and shaped
• Hand-building: an ancient pottery technique involving the construction of ceramic pieces almost entirely by hand
• Wheel Throwing: a round, moist lump of clay is thrown down onto the pottery wheel head. The clay is then made even by forcing it to the center of the wheel and applying pressure with the hands