Coil Pot Reflection

What I Learnt
One of the main things I learned was how to use the extruder. It's pretty easy to use. All you do is put clay into the opening and push the lever down. However, cleaning it up and changing the template was more difficult. Secondly, when I wanted to bend my coils into different shapes, some of the time, it would end up cracking. That really annoyed and bothered me. So, I learned that before you bend the coils, you should wipe it down with a sponge. It cracked because as I rolled it, my hands would take away the moisture from the coils, making them more prone to cracking. For me, that reduced the risk of having cracks in the coil. Thirdly, I learnt that you need to have a solid base to build more layers. I wanted to put a squiggly coil design near the bottom, but Mr. Swinehart advised that I put it near the top because it may not be able to support a lot of weight. It is important to take into account the placement of the coils. Lastly, I learnt that I should be more accurate when working with coils. I made a squiggly coil design, but the squiggles weren't all the same height. As a result, I had to fill up the empty spaces with other designs.

Design Reflection
I wanted to integrate my design as a part of the coils. I didn't put any extra designs on the outside. I didn't incise, excise, carve, or add clay onto the pot. I had a few coil ideas I wanted to integrate into the pot. A few of them were - the squiggly design, a braided design, and balls of clay. Originally, I wanted to use 3 coils and braid them into a single, larger coil. However, as I tried to braid the coils, it started cracking a lot, so I stuck with two and simply twisted them. Also, I originally planned on making the layer of balls of clay all the same size. But, I thought it would be more interesting if I made them different sizes. Some of the other layers on my pot were more like "stabilization" layers. Those coils are supposed to make the pot more stable and not as flimsy. Some layers of my coil pot were thought of carefully, and others were created in a spur. 

(Note: vocab is integrated into the process)