M.Tech. (Industrial Design) / The research project entitled: The Analysis of Clay Materials for use in a Ceramic Studio was undertaken in order to give a quantitative base to the understanding of clay materials and their role in clay bodies. The project consists of analysing the clay materials as they are supplied, using technically sophisticated equipment. A set of data for each of the nine chosen clays was assembled and then correlated for easier comparison. The clay materials were then mixed into clay bodies using a set proportion in order that a comparison of the nine clay bodies could be made and related to the data assembled for the clay materials. The data collected, as well as the ceramic calculations used in the research project were entered into the "Insight" Ceramic software programme for use in the studio. This data base will be the foundation for ongoing research into ceramic materials.

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This paper is in support of my thesis exhibition “Indirect Measure” May 5th – June 3rd 2017, at the Reece Museum, located on the campus of East Tennessee State University. This document is an account of my examination into what constitutes art and the change in my perception of the utilitarian ceramic vessel during my research into the perceived difference between craft and art. Using broad definitions, I define what I believe art to be and how it is different from, and the same as craft.

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This dissertation explores the importance of narrative in Ardmore ceramic ware and determines how and to what effect ceramic narrative is used by Ardmore Ceramic Studio. It gives a historical overview of narrative in ceramic wares of English potteries from the eighteenth century to date, as a means of contextualising and locating the influences of Ardmore narrative ceramics. This paper examines selected narrative works, by artists such as Andrew Sokhela and Wonderboy Nxumalo, with reference to Noverino N. Canonici’s writings regarding Zulu oral literature. One of the intentions of this paper is to illustrate how the fundamental elements of Zulu storytelling play an influential role in Ardmore ceramic narratives. Narrative as a means of communication, education and entertainment is assessed with reference to Ardmore examples. This dissertation investigates the potential to use ceramic narratives as anthropological research tools. The focus of this paper is to investigate the use of ceramic narrative in disseminating information and creating social awareness. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

Esta dissertação de mestrado busca compreender a produção plástica das crianças na perspectiva do processo de sua elaboração. A pesquisa de campo se deu em oficinas de arte cerâmica, conduzidas e observadas pela pesquisadora, com um grupo de crianças entre 4 e 10 anos de idade. As oficinas foram oferecidas em uma escola da rede privada de ensino do município de São Paulo, nos anos de 2006 e 2007. Esta experiência forneceu elementos consistentes para a elaboração da reflexão pretendida neste trabalho. O tratamento do conjunto das vivências criativas desenvolvidas se inspira na pesquisa etnográfica e encontra bases conceituais na antropologia. Os dados da pesquisa de campo são registrados em forma de relatos e imagens fotográficas. A análise é feita a partir da experiência acumulada da pesquisadora como arte-educadora ceramista e de um referencial teórico, centrado principalmente nas obras analíticas da artista plástica e pensadora Fayga Ostrower, e nas as contribuições de José Antônio Marina, Anna Marie Holm, Cecília Almeida Salles, Jorge Larrosa e Gaston Bachelard. A compreensão das vivências de criação deste grupo de crianças, em arte cerâmica, permitiu que a autora vislumbrasse a presença de percursos criativos individuais. Estes percursos ofereceram elementos originais para uma compreensão mais aprofundada do papel, importante e significativo, que a vivência de processos criativos da arte pode representar no desenvolvimento da infância. Esta pesquisa leva em consideração a singularidade das individualidades e do processo de formação de cada criança, ampliando, dessa maneira, o diálogo entre arte e pedagogia. / This master dissertation seeks to understand children visual art work within the perspective of their elaboration process, which is taken as object of observation and reflection. The fieldwork took place in Clay Workshops for children, from 4 up to 10 years old. These workshops were conducted and observed by the researcher and were offered in a private school in the city of São Paulo, during the years of 2006 and 2007. This experience gave consistent elements for the elaboration of the reflection intended in this work. The treatment of the set of these creative living experiences was inspired in the ethnographic research, which has its conceptual bases in the anthropology. The data collected in the fieldwork are formed by reports and photographic images. The analysis was made taking into account the accumulated experience of the researcher as a ceramist/pottery maker and art educator, besides some theoretical references centered especially on the analytical work of Fayga Ostrower, and some contributions of José Antônio Marina, Anna Marie Holm, Cecília Almeida Salles, Jorge Larossa and Gaston Bachelard. The understanding of the creative experiences of this group of children in ceramic art allowed the author of this dissertation to see the presence of creative paths. These paths offered original elements that lead us to a deeper understanding of the important and meaningful role played by these art creative processes in the development of children. This research considers the singularity of the individualities besides the formation process of each child, enlarging, this way, the dialogue between Arts and Pedagogy.

Esta dissertação de mestrado busca compreender a produção plástica das crianças na perspectiva do processo de sua elaboração. A pesquisa de campo se deu em oficinas de arte cerâmica, conduzidas e observadas pela pesquisadora, com um grupo de crianças entre 4 e 10 anos de idade. As oficinas foram oferecidas em uma escola da rede privada de ensino do município de São Paulo, nos anos de 2006 e 2007. Esta experiência forneceu elementos consistentes para a elaboração da reflexão pretendida neste trabalho. O tratamento do conjunto das vivências criativas desenvolvidas se inspira na pesquisa etnográfica e encontra bases conceituais na antropologia. Os dados da pesquisa de campo são registrados em forma de relatos e imagens fotográficas. A análise é feita a partir da experiência acumulada da pesquisadora como arte-educadora ceramista e de um referencial teórico, centrado principalmente nas obras analíticas da artista plástica e pensadora Fayga Ostrower, e nas as contribuições de José Antônio Marina, Anna Marie Holm, Cecília Almeida Salles, Jorge Larrosa e Gaston Bachelard. A compreensão das vivências de criação deste grupo de crianças, em arte cerâmica, permitiu que a autora vislumbrasse a presença de percursos criativos individuais. Estes percursos ofereceram elementos originais para uma compreensão mais aprofundada do papel, importante e significativo, que a vivência de processos criativos da arte pode representar no desenvolvimento da infância. Esta pesquisa leva em consideração a singularidade das individualidades e do processo de formação de cada criança, ampliando, dessa maneira, o diálogo entre arte e pedagogia. / This master dissertation seeks to understand children visual art work within the perspective of their elaboration process, which is taken as object of observation and reflection. The fieldwork took place in Clay Workshops for children, from 4 up to 10 years old. These workshops were conducted and observed by the researcher and were offered in a private school in the city of São Paulo, during the years of 2006 and 2007. This experience gave consistent elements for the elaboration of the reflection intended in this work. The treatment of the set of these creative living experiences was inspired in the ethnographic research, which has its conceptual bases in the anthropology. The data collected in the fieldwork are formed by reports and photographic images. The analysis was made taking into account the accumulated experience of the researcher as a ceramist/pottery maker and art educator, besides some theoretical references centered especially on the analytical work of Fayga Ostrower, and some contributions of José Antônio Marina, Anna Marie Holm, Cecília Almeida Salles, Jorge Larossa and Gaston Bachelard. The understanding of the creative experiences of this group of children in ceramic art allowed the author of this dissertation to see the presence of creative paths. These paths offered original elements that lead us to a deeper understanding of the important and meaningful role played by these art creative processes in the development of children. This research considers the singularity of the individualities besides the formation process of each child, enlarging, this way, the dialogue between Arts and Pedagogy.

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