I have really enjoyed ceramics this whole semester, even through the struggles and frustrations. Even though I wasnt sure about many things this whole semester and got frustrated when trying to throw and something got screwed up, I always knew I wanted my theme to be simplicity and nature. You can find simplicity and nature in all of my projects because that was my main focus the entire semester. 
    I was able to incoorporate nature into all of my projects simply with the glaze. The glazes that were bright crazy colors I tended to stay away from because when people think of nature they tend to think of greens, blues, browns, and neutral colors. Although you are able to find all colors in nature, some are more rare to find, so I stayed with the most common colors, especially the colors you find in the northwest. Ceramics is very natural so I wanted to take my projects back to the roots of nature to remind of where ceamics came from.
    Simplicity was a theme I definetly wanted because it looks so clean and pretty. Although the complex projects look very cool and are extremely interesting, I like to keep it simple. The projects with a lot going on can look a little messy at times, so I wanted mine to stay clean. The way I added simplicity was by not adding anything that took the eyes away from what the object is. When I threw something, I didnt add anything to what the object wa going to be. If it was a bowl, I didnt add any indents anywhere and I didnt do anything crazy with the lip. The sides of the projects stayed smooth and simple. When glazing, I didnt draw any designs, I just left them as solid colors and many of the projects were just one coloron all of it. The only multi-color projects were done in a way that wasnt complex and very simple and was appealing to the eye. SImplicity is important to me an I believe I incoorporated it very well in my projects. 
    My wheel altered bowl is a great example for both of my themes. I kept it very simple but throwing a regular bowl. After throwing it I didnt want anything fancy so I simply bent inwards two adjacent side and bent outwards the other two side of the bowls lip. This shows simplicity because is doesnt distract your eye and it is very clean. It also shows natural because it was all glazed one color, black. The black however varied in color at the lip, in the middle, and at the base and bottom. Nothing in nature is purely one color and it all varies so much. When looking at a flower petal, the colors arent he same over the whole leaf, the colr fades in some places, which is what the glaze did in all of my projects. 
    Nature and simplicity describe ceramics and I wouldnt even think to take back my choice of theme. I have learned a lot his semster and this whole year. Ceramics has been my favorite class all year and I believe was a great start to my highschool years. I have learned a lot, but not just about ceramics, but also about procrastination and my ability to be able to do anything I set my mind to. My year in ceramics was simple and as cheesy as it sounds, ist did bring me closer to nature.
 



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