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This thesis, in support of the Master of Fine Arts exhibition entitled Burnished Souls at East Tennessee State University, Carroll Reece Museum, Johnson City, Tennessee, November 25- December 18, 2004, describes in detail three aesthetic themes that have informed my work; The Refined Sense of Beauty, A Newly Defined Function, and The Artistic Element of Smoke and Fire. These aesthetic themes are discovered and explained through both historic and contemporary influences and are described in relation to their influence on my current work.

In this thesis, I discuss the function and use of decorated ceramic bowls at Fourmile Ruin, a Pueblo IV site located in east-central Arizona. My research focused on three wares dating to the Pueblo IV period of the American Southwest (AD 1275-1450): White Mountain Red Ware, Salado Polychrome, and Jeddito Yellow Ware. These wares represent the most abundant type of decorated ceramic bowls found at Fourmile Ruin. Ceramic wares and types are described, followed by a description of their physical and stylistic characteristics and functions, an analysis of how vessels were used, and, lastly, a discussion of the contexts within which ceramic bowls may have been used. I found that decorated ceramic bowls likely functioned as serving containers, and were used on a day-to-day basis. They also may have had a symbolic function, as evidenced by the use of decoration, color, and texture, and because of their possible uses in various social or religious rituals. Furthermore, the meaning of the vessels and their uses in rituals may have changed over time. From this information, I suggest that White Mountain Red Ware, Salado polychrome, and Jeddito Black-on-yellow bowls served as utilitarian serving containers, and as a means of communicating information about personal and group identity. They were used in contexts in which expressing, teaching and reinforcing important concepts may have been integral.

For my MFA thesis exhibition, I have collected ideas surrounding events that happened in the past and combined them with the ceramic work I have made in the three years of my master's program at Brigham Young University. I have grouped visual elements from Buck Rogers and other Futro (retro-future) pop-culture with ideas surrounding the Voyager Interstellar Mission and the compiling of the Golden Record. Combining these elements in an installation, will create an environment where people can reflect on things they have "already seen" and envision a brighter future. For that reason I playfully call the show Day Jaw Boo, a re-collection and allow the viewers to enter a dream-like-reality-stage of déjà vu.

Giving up a certain amount of control can be healthy, productive, and natural. Nature has an important part to play in our lives, and nature is random even as it obeys natural laws. In the same way, creating ceramic objects requires obedience to the laws of nature even as it benefits from freedom from control. Creation requires a certain amount of letting go of control, allowing nature to take its course, and recognizing when good things happen. I have learned that my most successful pieces emerge when I combine conscious control with serendipity. The work in this show reflects that symbiotic, natural relationship between control and serendipity, and it grew out of my struggles with unrealized expectations. I tend to be a problem solver, sometimes obsessively, and as I've worked through various surprises, challenges, disappointments, and disillusions, I've come to realize that I have little control over life's situations. I have learned to rely on the tender mercy of a greater designer and to value the less-than perfect; those lessons have influenced my ceramic art.

Ceramics from three Utah great houses, Bluff, Cottonwood Falls, and Edge of the Cedars, were analyzed and compared with ceramics from Three Kiva Pueblo, which is not a great house site but was occupied contemporarily. Data on jar and bowl rim diameters were considered to understand great house feasting dynamics. Cooking jars with large rim diameters were more common at Three Kiva than they were at the great houses. This suggests that Three Kiva residents prepared large batches of food more frequently than great house residents. Distributions of Mancos Black-on-white bowl diameters were very similar at great houses and Three Kiva, but Three Kiva had bowls with larger diameters than those found at the great houses. Jar sizes suggest it is possible that feasting at great houses took place with a potluck model; however, bowl sizes suggest that Three Kiva also hosted feasts. Data on ceramic origins were considered to look for direction and strength of relationships with outside regions. All of the great houses had higher proportions of imported ceramics than Three Kiva, suggesting that great house residents interacted with people from other regions more frequently. All sites had large proportions of imported ceramics from the Kayenta region. All great house sites had Chuskan and Cibolan sherds, suggesting interaction with Chaco Canyon. Proportions of imported ceramics and the regions from which they came varied for each site, indicating that site residents maintained independent connections to people living in other regions.

Processing of ceramics has always been difficult due to how hard and brittle the material is. Fused Deposition of Ceramics (FDC) is a method of additive manufacturing which allows ceramic parts to be built layer by layer, abetting more complex geometries and avoiding the potential to fracture seen with processes such as grinding and milling. In the process of FDC, a polymeric binder system is mixed with ceramic powder for the printing of the part and then burned out to leave a fully ceramic part. This experiment investigates a new combination of materials, zirconia and acrylic binder, optimizing the process of making the material into a filament conducive to the printer system and then performing trials with the filament in the printer to assess its feasibility. Statistical analysis was used to determine optimal parameter levels using response surface methodology to pinpoint the material composition and temperature yielding the highest quality filament. It was discovered that although the mixture had adequate melting characteristics to be liquefied and printed into a part, the binder system did not provide the stiffness required to act as a piston to be fed through the printer head. Further studies should be completed continuing the investigation of zirconia and acrylic binder, but with added components to increase strength and rigidity of the filament.

The purposes of this study were to determine as a function of temperature the thermal diffusivity and/or thermal conductivity of SiC-Mullite and SiC-SiC, and to explain the observed behavior in terms of changes in temperature, microstructure, composition, and/or orientation. Materials used in the SiC-Mullite study consisted of single crystal SiC whiskers (prepared from rice hulls or by the vapor-liquid-solid process) dispersed within a polycrystalline mullite matrix. During measurement of thermal diffusivity, the samples were heated to l500°C and cooled back to room temperature. No hysteresis occurred. However, both thermal diffusivity and conductivity exhibited maximum values at room temperatures, perpendicular to the hot pressing direction, at high volume percentages of SiC whiskers, and when VLS whiskers were employed. The SiC-SiC samples consisted of a crossweave of polycrystalline SiC fibers that were coated with phenolic resin and surrounded by a chemically-vapor-deposited matrix of SiC. The two types of samples examined were prepared with different amounts of resin. The matrices of the high resin samples were found to be dominated by the presence of char. Samples were cycled to 1000, 1400, and l800°C; hysteresis occurred on some of the cycles. Thermal diffusivity was highest parallel to one set of fibers. These results allow the qualitative tailoring of the heat flow properties of these ceramic composites, for particular applications, and set forth limitations on the use of the SiC-SiC composites at high temperatures. / Master of Science

This dissertation explores the layering of colonial and imperial processes in the Northern Rio Grande region of North America from a material perspective. It investigates how different outside influences shaped the development of San Antonio del Embudo, a vecino land grant community, from the 18th to 20th centuries. Based on historical, archaeological, and anthropological research, the study traces the accumulation and impact of various processes on Embudo. It places particular emphasis on how vecino life responded to existing and emerging Indigenous political and economic dynamics and the impact of later American colonialism. The dissertation analyzes excavation data to track changing settlement patterns over time and examines ceramics found in excavation contexts to understand Embudo's role in the regional ceramic economy. Additionally, it draws on archival records and community knowledge to aid in archaeological interpretation. This work reveals the multifaceted social position of vecinos in the Northern Rio Grande. Vecinos have, at times, embodied Spanish colonial policies and aspirations. Yet they have also forged long-term relations with Pueblo nations, negotiated an ambivalent relationship to American settler colonialism, and developed distinct ways of dwelling in the region through centuries of navigating Spanish, American, and Indigenous influences.