DE340 Pottery for Beginners (HASMED)

You need to pre-register for this course. We can accommodate 100 students in each semester.
After registration students would need to choose two 1 hour practice slots each week (Six 1 hour slots are available starting at 9:30AM and ending at 4:30PM, Monday through Friday)
depending on their other commitments. They also need to attend common classes each week (Slot 7, Wed/Fri 11 to 12.30)
At the end of each day, students need to volunteer for ONE day in the semester from 5.30PM to 6PM for cleaning up the studio.

Course Objective
To understand the value of the hand-crafted in the Age of AI.

Course Contents
Claybodies.
Hand-shaping Terracotta.
Centering, Making cylinders.
Making a kulhad.
Reflecting and writing.
Helping in cleanliness.
History of Ceramics.
Contemporary Ceramics.

Course Evaluation
Attendance 20%; Cleaning 5%
Hand-shaping 5%
Reflection and Writing 20%

Wheelwork 50% (Centering 15%; Cylinder-making 15%; Trimming and Kulhad 20%
OR Hand-shaping 50% (Sculpture / Mural / Installation)

Date
Screenings / Slide-Talks
5 August 2026
 The Potters Paradox / Contemporary Potters
12 August 2026
 Journeys in Clay: Part 1
19 August 2026
 Journeys in Clay: Part2 / Bernard Leach: A Potter's Book
2 September 2026
 Journeys in Clay: Part3 / A Brief History of Humankind
9 September 2026
 Keith Brymer Jones / Kazuya Ishida
16 September 2026
 To be decided
23 September 2026
 To be decided
30 September 2026
 To be decided
7 October 2026
 To be decided
14 October 2026
 To be decided
21 October 2026
 To be decided
28 October 2026
 To be decided
4 November 2026
 To be decided

Select References
Books
Rhodes Daniel, Pottery Form, , Pitman, 1976
Yanagi Soetsu, The Unknown Craftsman, Kodansha, USA, 1984
Preaud Tamara, Ceramics of the 20th Century, Rizzoli, 1982
Leach Bernard, A Potter's Book, Unicorn, London, 2015 (First published 1940)
Singh Gurucharan, Pottery in India, Vikas Publishing, 1979
Velar Ramu, Geetha V., A Potter's Tale, Tara Books, 2021

Journals and Magazines
MRIN: ICAF Vol 1-6