Rachel Dorn Ceramic Sculpture: demonstrations

Showing posts with label demonstrations. Show all posts

Monday, June 21, 2021

Time Lapse Coil Building Video Series

The finished (not yet dried and fired) coil built sculpture from the videos

Much of my work is coil built. I find this technique to be the fastest, easiest, and most enjoyable way to build up asymmetrical forms fairly quickly. Throwing is faster, easier, and more pleasant for functional work and symmetrical forms, but the extra setup and cleanup, as well as the effort to alter the forms to create asymmetrical pieces makes this technique less appropriate for these types of sculptures.

The first video shows how I build without a base. I started working on a board on the table thinking I could keep it steady for the video, but almost immediately I realized I'd have to turn it to work. Usually I work on a banding wheel.

But demonstrating coil building and communicating why it is such a great technique has always been a challenge. A throwing demo is quick and impressive. Students can quickly see why it would be a great technique to master. Slabs are also fairly straight forward to demonstrate, as long as you prep some slabs ahead of time so they are leatherhard for the demo. Coil building allows for endless variations and adjustments as you build, but also takes a long time. And that time can't be all in one sitting. Once you've reached a certain height, width, or weight, the clay needs some time to firm up before you can continue adding to the top.

For the building, I used mostly my fingers and several ribs. A serrated rib allows me to quickly adjust the surface and shape. A smooth, flexible metal rip then smooths that rough surface, and a silicon rib smooths more. I sometimes use a paddle to help adjust a shape and I also score the tope edge(s) at the start of a new building session. I don't score each coil.

This is tough to communicate in a live demonstration, because a live demonstration would require several pieces all at different stages of the build. It seems like an online/video demonstration would help, but it would still require multiple videos at different stages and the technique itself is still repetitive and, frankly, boring to watch in real time. It is also both simple, in the "I get it, you keep stacking snakes on top of snakes" way and complex in that there are nuances in how those snakes get stacked and attached.

The sculpture partway through building, after I applied the first round of texture.

I've been pondering this problem for years, really, but even during this online year, I didn't feel like I got the demonstrations where I wanted them to be. I use a video playlist showing the basic techniques, including how to create visible coils, how to smooth the coils, how to adjust the shape or add "appendages" and showing examples of finished pieces.

A screenshot of the first part of the coil building directions for my online class.

I give the students some options as far as how they watch these demos and also include examples of finished work and some links to alternate ways of using coils. I have the students practice using coils and in the second week include some more advanced techniques for changing the shape, burnishing, and other techniques they might want to explore.

A screenshot of the top of my Tips & Troubleshooting page for my online class.

This spring, I added a troubleshooting page with tips and suggestions, including illlustrations, to try to help students work through the kinds of problems students often run into. This troubleshooting page is an attempt to capture some of the things that would be discussed in class. The format certainly isn't as nice as what would happen organically during class, when I would be able to show students a fix (or an error) in their own work, but I think it was helpful. I created one of these Tips & Troubleshooting pages for each of the building techniques we learned in the online class.

Some of the images in the Tips & Troubleshooting page for coils.

So this problem has been percolating for some time, but it wasn't until classes ended that I came up with a possible solution. Instagram was my inspiration, in fact. Lots of makers on Instagram show their process using time lapse videos. Just the other week I watched a comparison video where the artist contrasted how fast the technique seems in the time-lapse with how slow the technique is in the regular speed video.

The textures was applied using sprigs, and a variety of ball styluses. I have a small bisque mold for the sprigs. I use a scoring tool and brush to attach them and smooth their edges with a couple of rubber tip tools, followed by three sizes of ball stylus.

My problem is precisely that: if I were to record the videos in real time, they'd be tediously boring. Coil building feels fast when I'm doing it, but that's because I enjoy it and I usually am listening to an interesting audiobook while I build. But watching me build with coils, I think that would feel akin to watching paint dry. I don't think it would be reasonable to expect students to literally watch hours of video to see me work through a sculpture from start to finish.

The texture combines old and new. I've had this gear sprig for years, but the large ball stylus is new and I'm trying it out here.

The timing of the videos has actually been a problem from both the watching and the making perspective. I've created videos in my home studio before, but because my camera is my phone and my audiobook player is my phone (and I don't have the rights to record audio anyway), I have had to choose between the two. This year my daughter is old enough to have a phone of her own (and old one of mine actually) which I borrowed for the time lapse video. I was able to listen to my audiobook and simply set up her phone/camera on a tripod and go.

Periodically I seem to stop moving. I think that's when I'm pressing clay into my sprig mold. I press the clay in, scratch the back to score it, then it comes out pretty easily because the bisque mold has soaked in some of the moisture from the wet clay. I would make a bunch at once, then attach a group of them.

I haven't tested these with a studio audience yet, obviously, but I am hoping that these videos, in combination with the regular speed ones where I explain my techniques, can help the students to see the process from start to finish. I worked on this particular sculpture on 7 different ocassions on 5 different days. All seven videos ended up around 30 seconds long, but each time I worked for close to an hour. I don't understand the iPhone timelapse settings (or math, apparently) well enough to know exactly how long each session was, but let's call it seven hours plus drying time, for the whole sculpture. I did do maybe 15 minutes of touchup on the top after the last video, but that's the only time I worked on it with the video off.

I am impressed that I managed to keep my head out of the view as much as I did. I knew I was leaning my head or my arm in front of the camera, but with a complicated form like this, it's tough to get the texture applied evenly all the way around and under each piece. It's importntt not to rush, too, which I would have done if this were a real-time video.

I think the videos ended up working well, at least on their own. For some reason I don't care to find out today, Blogger made them square, but they're normal proportions on YouTube where I've made them into a very short playlist.

Here the inside of the coils is pretty visible again for a while. Though it is less important to fully smooth the inside of a sculpture no one can see inside of, I do try to smooth the inside seams to prevent cracking and strengthen those joins.

Of course the nature of the form and surface means that a lot of the movements in the videos, especially the middle videos are pretty repetitive, but I didn't want to cut something out that might be of note. The start and end are obviously interesting, but I imagine that students would be interested to see how the twisting shapes are created and how tall I build before taking a break. All or nearly all of the breaks between videos were necessitated by the clay becoming too soft to continue working.

I had to pull the camera back to show the whole form, so there's a lot more me in this video than I'd prefer. A lot more facial expressions from me, too, alas. And if you look carefully, some extra young people in the room, too.

In the last video, I was very nearly done, but I was also distracted because someone came into my studio to pester me, stick her hand in front of the camera and then shine a laser pointer at the sculpture. I'm not sure you can tell in the time lapse, but I was able to find her when I slowed down the video to check. It's amazing how different it feels to work alone in a studio than to work in a studio with someone who wants to surprise you.

The finished sculpture.

Watching the time lapse videos, it's also kind of astonishing how quickly the process seems to go. The build did feel fairly quick in real-life, but the texture took forever. To see it compressed into literal seconds is kind of fun, but also kind of exhausting; an hour of concentration and care reduced to less than a minute of frenetic movement!

You can watch the entire playlist here if you like (or above if the embedded playlist will start working again--this is the second time since March that I've had trouble with embedded playlists--last time YouTube fixed it. This time I'm not sure if it's Blogger's fault).

I'm really curious to hear what folks think about these time lapse video demos as pedagogical tools. Do you feel like you have a better understanding of how coil building works? Have you tried coil building? Did I do or include things you didn't already know about? What would you want to see more/less of if you were using this to learn? Is this too complicated a form to be useful?

Monday, September 14, 2020

Spy Glasses in the Studio

Rocking the spy glasses in my studio

I got myself some new glasses for the new school year. These may look like ordinary (overly large) specs, but they're actually a studio tool for teaching online during a pandemic. Just about a week ago I found out I'll be teaching my hand-building class online. Actually, I begged my boss for permission to teach it online because I was dreading a no-clay quarter.

Photo from the new glasses. I blame the color on the wildfire smoke. In regular daytime lighting the color does not appear dim like this.

So, teaching clay (and design) entirely online means I'm going to need to make some more videos. I'm very grateful that I have made so many clay videos in the past and I can reuse quite a few, but the existing clay video strengths are pretty much opposite of what will be needed at the start of the online class. In a typical hybrid online class, I start with the students in person, so most of them don't need to see, say, a video demonstration of how to make a pinch bowl. Then the videos demonstrate how to use tools in the studio. But now, with an entirely online clay class, our first day of class, as well as all the subsequent days, will be online. So I need to make a close up video of making a pinch bowl, as well as other videos of setting up a home work space, and a number of clay handling demos that students might have otherwise gotten during class time.

This video was done on my phone because the glasses do not react well to movement.

Now, the trouble with the videos I've already recorded is that they don't show enough close detail. With someone else filming, the view is naturally somewhat removed. And it's hard to hold the camera and make a pinch pot with two hands. So I bought myself a set of "spy glasses" or camera glasses. My daughter's art teacher mentioned using spy glasses for wheel throwing demos, and I was struck with how great that idea sounded. It isn't really feasible to attach a regular camera or phone to one's head, but glasses belong on one's face already. I could get a GoPro and strap it to my forehead, but the angle would be too high and I'd have to look below where I was working. The glasses, theoretically, give a view of the clay and my hands that matches what the students will see when they are using their own hands.

The glasses, plugged in for downloading, and the tiny manual

I purchased these glasses a few weeks ago and have spent the past two weeks climbing the learning curve. The glasses seem decent. The video and audio quality is pretty good, at least with good lighting, they're comfortable (even when I'm wearing them over my regular glasses). Uploads have been mostly fine and not particularly complicated. But the glasses certainly aren't flawless. The manual is sized for a doll and was written by someone with a loose grasp of English grammar. Luckily, there are only two buttons and a total of maybe 8 actions one could do with the glasses, including turning the camera on and off, taking a picture or video, taking the microSD card in and out, uploading content, and reseting the camera when "...the product is affected by improper operation or unknown reasons..." (page 03, Reset).

Page 02 and 03 of the manual

The directions (and punctuation) for some of these actions may qualify as Dada poetry.

From page 02 (of an 08 page manual):

"Short press the Power button to turn on, the blue indicator light.

the photo file."

From page 03:

"In the standby state, long press the Camera key 3 seconds release the hand, the indicator light blue flashes three times extinguishes the machine to enter the automatic recording state..."

And on the last page of the manual, all text is underlined:

"If for whaterer erason you have any issues with our product please to not hesitate to email us with your order # information."

...just, for no "erason" a mostly blank set of pages with all underlined text

Ok, but I should be more patient; I did not pay a ton for these glasses and who cares if they didn't format or edit their manual. The product actually works fairly well much of the time. The frustration has been mostly in that the camera doesn't always indicate that it is or is not recording. I have a number of pictures of my lap and the side of the table, and I also recorded at least two instances of the clicking sound the button makes when it is supposed to be ending the recording. I also have a video that ends with a walk into the kitchen and me complaining to my husband that the camera stopped recording (spoiler: it didn't). I got confused because the indicator light has about a 60/40% change of actually indicating what is happening.

This is two videos, pieced together, recorded on the spy glasses, notice that I'm sometimes operating below the view of the camera.

I also have been struggling with where to focus when making the recording. If I look through the lenses, at the table where I am "working" the glasses generally record the area above (or behind) where my hands are, so I've taken to sliding the frames down the bridge of my nose, aligning my eyes with the top edge of the frames, and using that as a target for where to record. Since the lenses are non-prescription and I don't always wear contacts, this serve the dual function of allowing me to look through my real glasses while wearing the camera glasses. I have thus negated their function as "spy glasses" but since I am alone in the studio anyway, no one cares. I wouldn't say that I've completely figured out where to aim the glasses or my face, as can be seen in the video above, but I'm getting better.

my studio and the East facing window, earlier this year

I have also found glasses do not do well with movement. I initially tried to record video walking into and looking around my studio (the other video in this post that was re-recorded on my phone), but on the glasses was jerky and hard to watch. I have since been trying to keep my head unnaturally still. I also discovered that the glasses require pretty good lighting to work well. Luckily they don't require an internet connection, so I can use them in my newly remodeled studio which has big beautiful windows to let in natural light. When the entire West coast isn't covered by smoke, that natural light is pretty nice.

the other, South facing window in my newly remodeled studio

I hope I have worked through the worst problems, and will continue to improve in operation of the glasses. The glasses have quit functioning entirely twice. Restarting them worked once, and replacing the microSD worked another time. I am hopeful that that's the worst of it and those tricks will continue to solve problems. I might also need to practice meditation before troubleshooting, perhaps the Dada poetry manual will help.

Saturday, December 16, 2017

Flipped Class Format & Results

This has been an incredible busy week! The quarter ended last week and grades were due Friday, but I decided to take on a fairly massive project over the break. This quarter I "flipped" my Functional Pottery class and next quarter I plan to flip my Clay 1: Hand-building class.

Flipping a class, if you aren't familiar with the term, means that students spend class time doing and homework time watching or preparing. My Functional Pottery students who chose the "flipped class format" for homework this fall watched throwing demos online in lieu of watching me demonstrate the same techniques during class. A few students students chose to watch both my online videos and the live demos.

I'm sure sometimes students skipped the videos, but this was a particularly strong quarter for Functional Pottery and the students produced particularly strong work. One of the ways I knew that students had watched the videos was that I could see them doing the techniques demonstrated in the assigned videos. Because I didn't have to demonstrate everything live during class, I was able, instead, to watch students throw and help them, individually, to improve their techniques at the wheel.

Even if I demonstrated for some students at the beginning of class, immediately after I finished, I could go see the progress of the students who flipped the class and were working during my live demo. I had very little trouble with students coming to class unprepared and I felt that we got more done during class time than in a typical class before flipping.

Before fall, I had been preparing to flip this class for some time. A few years ago I recorded video demonstrations for a whole range of throwing techniques. I spend a couple of days during summer break, all day for two days, recording the demos and then I spent some more time uploading and processing the videos. I labelled this blog post about my videos "tedium" because I was such a fan of the process. The process of getting the videos made was annoying, mostly because I had to clean my hands between every video to operate the camera controls, but also because I spent two solid days alone, talking to the camera, but feeling a bit foolish about it.

The video project from 2016 was also annoying because I had recorded most of the videos before. I was trying to make the videos look better, rather than creating something entirely new. I can easily see the difference between the videos from 2016 and the ones recorded in 2012, but the older videos weren't totally worthless.

I used the videos from 2016 and the ones from 2012 as supplements to my Functional Pottery classes, but this fall was the first time I officially offered students the opportunity to watch me on video and not watch the live classroom demos. Getting the flipped class set up took a bit more work. I had to collect the videos into playlists and make them obvious and accessible each week through Canvas. I also had to be sure that students understood what to watch each week.

One significant advantage of the flipped format is that I was able to supplement my videos with ones done by other potters. Instead of watching my quick demonstration of a variety of surface decorating techniques, for example, students were directed to watch other artists decorate their work using a wide range of techniques and taking more time than I have during class. Students could watch the entire technique or could speed up the video to watch just the parts that pertained to their work. Students could also return to any of the demonstration videos as needed throughout the quarter. Of course students could also watch other related videos that popped up on YouTube after the assigned videos.

After such a successful quarter this fall, I was excited to flip my other classes, but I was apprehensive about the amount of tedium and effort recording all my hand-building demonstrations would take. What I really wanted was some videography help. Sometimes, if you ask for help, you'll find that it is available.

So this past week, I demonstrated while a colleague, Kevin Hager, who works with our online classes, recorded the demonstrations for me. I had a list of about 50-70 things I wanted to record and I figured, based on how long it took last year, that we would need two solid days to record everything I wanted to do. To my surprise and delight, the process took much much less time than I anticipated. We were able to consolidate the videos down to about 50 by combining some things, but we also cranked through them in about half the time I anticipated it might take, in part because he could set up the camera while I set up the clay and tools.

We spent just the morning doing videos the first two days and had to return for about an hour on the third day because one piece needed to dry and be worked on before the final video could be recorded. In all, though, the process was significantly more pleasant than in 2016. It was still exhausting, but there wasn't the associated tedium and frustration with technology (specifically, with having to clean my hands before handling technology). I was also able to rely on a second opinion for how to compose the shots. My face probably shows up more frequently in the videos Kevin recorded, but I didn't have to make the decisions about where to focus.

The videos I did this week should be processed and online in a couple of weeks (folks are off for the holidays and I am getting some help getting the videos ready). I will need to spend some time before January 2 collecting the videos into playlists for class, but the goal is to allow me to have the students spend all their classroom hours working and some of their homework hours watching the demos they would otherwise watch during class time. I'm fairly excited about the possibilities for winter quarter, which is exactly where one wants to be, mentally, in December.

The student artwork featured in this blog post was all made in my Fall 2017 Functional Pottery class. In addition to the flipped class format, this quarter I also implemented a requirement for students to take pictures of their work after each project. They took these pictures using our new studio photo setup.

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

New Throwing Videos

Earlier this summer, I decided to redo some of the throwing videos on my YouTube channel to improve the quality of the videos. I perhaps could have gone into the original files and re-uploaded them at a better resolution, but I thought remaking 30 videos in their entirety would be a quick 2-day project for my summer enjoyment.

my wheel and camera set up in the YVC studio

I was completely wrong. It was not quick, nor was it fun. However, uploading the videos from the borrowed camera to my work computer was pretty easy and I am able to upload them directly to YouTube without editing them. The last time I uploaded a bunch of throwing videos to YouTube, I spent a tedious amount of time editing the video setting so they'd upload correctly.

Please remember that some of these videos are aimed at a beginning pottery student at the start of class

So, what I've created are higher resolution videos demonstrating throwing techniques on the YVCC wheels--but not necessarily better throwing demonstrations overall. I'm afraid the videos aren't as nice as they could be if I were a professional videographer, but the videos are stable (YouTube disagrees because it sees the movement of the wheel as a "shake", but all the videos were filmed on a tripod, so I disagree with YouTube's automatic stabilizer recommendation--on every dang video!), the shot is focused in the right place, and the audio is audible.

The videos are meant as support or repetition for concepts discussed in class (like a free textbook that talks to you).

Sadly, the first day I chose to film, wasn't a great day for me. I had a bunch of air bubbles in the clay and I kept forgetting that the videos I was filming in series weren't going to be watched in series, so I occasionally refer to the previous demo. Because I was filming the videos myself, they start and end with me getting to the camera or wiping my hands off before turning the camera off.

This video's more fun (though probably less helpful for beginners).

Next time I do this, I want to bring in another person to do the filming. That person can help set up the best camera angle to see the wheel and maybe me, too (I'm cropped out of basically all of the videos). That person can also move the camera for another angle while I situate things on the wheel.

This helpful hypothetical person with clean hands can start and stop the videos so that I can demonstrate distinct steps (like centering) in separate videos without cleaning my hands off over and over and over and over and over again. Additionally, this person can talk to me between takes so I don't lose my mind. And with the aforementioned clean hands, this person can simply stop and restart the camera when I make a silly mistake.

in other news, I'm looking forward to getting some students to join me in a few weeks in the new studio. This summer maintenance installed our classroom rules. These two pretty much cover it for my studio.

If you have any constructive criticism to offer regarding videos, angles, demonstrations, etc you'd like to see (for class), please let me know.

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