Let me be clear!! This video is only on hollow with no hole vs hollow with a hole. Shorts only allow 1 minute which means 30 seconds of this video and the caption are missing. I got on to explain teachers do not have the time to completely dry pieces which is why the hole is important. I suggest just putting a hole because, let’s be real, better safe than sorry. I also mention, size, clay body, kiln temp/schedule all effect the success of firing hollow. have a beautiful day go make some cute stuff ❤
@@mochipii thanks for the feedback 💖 this video was originally posted on other platforms that allow longer content and where the audience enjoys my yappin 😅
i think its more accurate to call it a misconception. teachers dont have the time to fully dry a piece before firing, they have a curriculum to keep up with
I also think they have a higher responsibility to _all_ of the students - they need to control the risk of a piece exploding, because the kiln is full of everybody’s work
This- i became advanced at pottery and the teachers assistant , got to learn the details for this reason. After being responsible for loading the kiln and unloading the kiln after waiting days for a full load i totally understood why she didnt tell the kids that it wasnt truly necessary for forms to last
Maybe but my art teacher also never explained additive and subtractive primary colors.. and I don’t care if that’s upper level art or not.. my primary colored paintings always looked like poop and when I asked her she never explained why.
@@thisissshemy art classes that used paint , uses cyan, magenta and yellow, titanium white, and black. In college I never used RBY. In ceramics, we were told "no kichy stuff".. nothing you can find in a lucky charms box. Therefore, no primary colors were available either.
My art teacher didnt tell us that they exploded, so a student made a hollow one to use less material and it exploded and took two other sculptures with it 😭
This!! My artwork almost completely shattered because an eyeball exploded! It was a sculpture of a mimic from dnd for Halloween and it destroyed several other pieces my peers made 😢
And this is why we prefer all pieces have a hole. The pieces made in class are a one time project, fired with many many others. Having one piece explode and break others has consequences for multiple people. I'd much rather demand my students oke a hole in their work than have to console three others on their ruined work. Also our rooms don't have the best drying capacity. Even if we left them longer than technically needed there might still be some moisture in a couple pieces .
My art teacher told us that its only necessary to make a hole when the sculpture is 2 or more inches thick, otherwise she just forced us to wait longer than necessary for the clay to dry and then fire it
Same here! All my ceramics and art teachers only told me to either hollow it out so it was less than 2 in thick and allow for FULL drying (over a week often) OR I could poke a few holes or make one big hole in the back
My suspicion is that older / old school teachers are the one lying to their classes and now slowly (literally) dying off I see it at the school I work at most Millennial/ Gen Z teachers are more likely to tell their classes the truth While all Boomer teachers I met tend to tell quick lies to shut the kids up (GenX is a mostly mixed group) But GenZ/Millennial teachers actually have better results and get more respect in the end because fascinatingly children learn how to tell who is lying to them 😱 And even more fascinating is the fact they tend to listen more to people that don’t lie to them 😱😱😱
Basically, there are 2 mutually exclusive truths: you can fire a hollow piece with no hole (if it's completely dry) and you can fire a piece that's not completely dry (if there are no air pockets). It's the closed space + mousture that leads to explosions because the moisture increases pressure in the space when heated. So the best practice is to dry the puece and leave space for moisture to escape, especually when your work is being fired with other peoples'.
Yeah, we used to make ceramic bells. Basically put a small hollow sphere with no holes inside a larger sphere with holes in it and a loop for hanging it. They sound pretty wild and they tend to break after a while if you mess with them too much, but they always survived the kiln.
It's the same with air bubbles. People are so worried about air bubbles but as long as the piece is completely dry before firing, it'll most likely be perfectly fine
My ceramics teacher told us that our projects need to have holes if they were hollow even if the hole is tiny because when the kiln heats up the air expands and the piece explodes
Air (and most gases or gas mixtures you're likely to encounter) is really compressible! Some pieces with weak walls may not be able to contain the higher air pressure but the air pressure isn't generally going to be a major deal just from a physics standpoint.
@@AgentLane13plus there shouldn't be much of a pressure difference because the air around the piece would be roughly the same temperature as the air inside.
I work with porcelain. Pieces can exploded becquse the air trapped inside expands in the heat and if tjwr is no airhole in your hollow piece there are only tree outcomes. 1. It will break open at the weakest point, 2. itself expands (actually happend once, was really funny) and 3. it creates so much force that it will in fact explode. But you are also right, not fully dried pirces may also expode because of the trapped water. It's importend to let thicker pieces dry out completly
Absolutely !! On other platforms I was able to go into more detail (this video had 30 more seconds and a full caption) I go over teachers not having enough time to let pieces properly dry. Also how clay body, firing temp and schedule will also have a huge impact on how pieces dry and fire with no hole! The big point is that air expands far less than water does so make sure your pieces are fully dry before firing !!!
My ceramics teacher taught us how to make hollow balls, I didn't realise people thought this. Can confirm, they do not explode without holes unless they're still wet.
Yeah it’s less actual ceramics teachers from what I’ve seen who told this lie or made this mistake depending on which it was, and more the general school teachers (K-12th) that said it. That’s because - as OP mentioned in a pinned comment and I believe in the full length video - art teachers who only have the students for a short time out of the whole school day sometimes not even every day have too much to teach to be able to wait until a piece that takes longer to dry is safely ready for the kiln. Glad your teacher knew better and taught better!/gen
That makes me think my art teacher actually dropped my snowman that was Xmas gift for my gma in highschool and not that it exploded.... because nothing else in the kiln was damaged 😢
I help my ceramics teacher sometimes during the school and one time I was cleaning when I heard one explode. While she's correct they don't need a hole they can still explode if they don't because they might not be fully dry or other reasons
I’ve definitely seen pieces explode in the kiln before. It’s not impossible. Especially in a school setting where there’s not time to let every single piece dry.
Depending on how your teacher put the pieces in, its possible only yours exploded and didn't touch any of the other sculptures inside the kiln (happens often, im a TA for a few hs sculpture classes), but if she did drop it I'm so sorry.. at least super glue can probably help 🫡 (Also If it helps your peace of mind, it's easy to tell a drop VS an explosion based on how the cracks look, if your snowman was shattered instead of chunks or pieces missing, I hope your art teacher's pillow is moist tonight..)
Yeah I’m sorry but this is mostly wrong. As a ceramic artist I can tell you hollow pieces actually dry faster, the thicker the clay the more water it contains and the father the water has to evaporate. Hollow pieces without holes will explode when the air particles expand with enough force, this is more likely to happen in bigger pieces. Solid items are also likely to explode if not dried completely. The water in the object if not fully dried will cause cracks and breaks and potential explosions. Smaller hollow objects are less likely to explode because there is less air. Do not take the word of this person at face value, what she says is logically inaccurate
I have kilned larger hollow pieces, smaller, thicker, thinner, no explosions. In the full video (and captions) I explain that how large your piece is, the clay body and firing temp/schedule play a huge roll in successful firing. I also suggest just putting a hole in a piece to be safe. This isn’t about solid vs hollow this is only speaking in hollow with no hole vs hole with a hole.
Yea, also a potter and you're talking theoretical while she is talking about the exceptions to your theory. What she is saying is true and has examples to show for it. Not just in her work but in countless other examples and my own work that follows the same principles by coincidence. Lots of works fired in a communal kiln and havent had any explosions because I took the necessary steps to account for the factors at play for my pieces.
The elitism is disturbing. They’re also an artist though idk if what they’re using is ceramic. You’re not somehow different or above them for that? And you said the same thing they did with a bunch more words and deliberately ignored the exceptions to the hard and fast rules you made. Clearly your rules aren’t universal because this artist has several pieces of multiple sizes with and without a hole proving you wrong. Humble yourself and stop trying to feel superior. Thanks!
@@littlesparkkitten not at all trying to be elitist in any way here. However I have had many students come into my shop saying the same thing and it caused their pieces to go wrong. To make a blanket statement like your art teacher lied to you is damaging to future ceramic artists. Making such statements without adding clarification to the statements can set unrealistic expectations. In addition she is a ceramic artist, it says it on her page. Any clay body that is fired in a kiln is considered ceramic.
My teacher was just trying to make sure everyone's peices survived! All the peices go in together and some kids care way more about thier work than others. When you're dealing with a bunch of dumbkids, it's best to er on the side of caution.
They should just be honest and say what we don’t have is enough time to make hollow pieces… but if we leave it a few weeks and you’re happy to wait we can revisit these in another class! It would add so much enrichment to this class and they would gain perspective on the fact ceramics take TIME this lesson would help them understand the patience it takes and those who wait will be rewarded.
yeeee as a ceramic student going into my second year in school it's a priority to add a hole just for safe measures, but yes if it's fully drynit has a less chance of exploding. But we add holes since we only have so much time for projects 😂
My middle school art teacher basically told me that teaching me was a waste of effort. She was so mean to me no matter what I did. She's dead now. Thanks for saying this even if that's not what you meant.
My middle school and high school had no art teacher because they said the students didn’t appreciate the class enough so when the old art teachers retired they just turned the rooms into detention rooms, you could still see peoples paintings on the ceiling tiles.
this is cool to know. I work at a school and run the kilns, I'm fairly new to it so there's a lot to learn. And yes we always make sure student works have holes, which to be fair we can rarely leave works to completely dry just due to time constraints and volume of things that need firing so in the context of a highschool we do need the holes 😊 but for personal works this is nice to know!
absolutely !! In the full video I go on to explain schools just don’t have the time so just put a hole in it. What yall do is amazing!! Worth noting clay body, firing temp and speed will also play a part in your success firing hollow. Good luck have fun !!!
@themidorihouse thankyou! I love running the kilns and so far have had no incidents which feels so good but I'm loving finding out new things along the way about firing schedules and glazes and all that comes with working with clay
it's a combination of it needing to be fully dry and the firing going to fast. If something is hollow, when you begin to fire it the residual moisture in the clay will essentially form steam within that space. That steam will want to expand at a rate much more than the clay itself so eventually if the pressure of the steam becomes greater than the vessel can withstand it will give and explode. If there's a small hole then it allows the steam to release and less pressure to build up. As long as your vessel has a sound structure and it was given enough time to air dry first, then it shouldn't matter.
I absolutely LOVED my ceramics teacher! I was the only student allowed to run the kiln. He was a Marine Veteran & really cared. I just looked it up, Mr. Sutton is still teaching ❤.
My art teacher told me i would go nowhere in life if I can't make a cereal bowl with 3 different designs from basically sctratch in 4 days! Glad to know she was lying to me!
Low and very slow if you have air even when dry is best because students mostly don't have this skill and knowledge on all proper procedures to the rule exceptions. Also thick clay that has a pocket that is fully dry will still also explode, seen it happen and it was bad
Thick pieces still need holes guys, she’s not negating that. She’s simply stating that if small hollow pieces are exploding, chances are they still have moisture in them. Pieces with moisture of any amount left in them and a hole are still more likely to explode than a completely dry pieces with no hole. The hole doesn’t matter on a piece that isn’t dried properly, it’s still more likely to explode.
Maybe if the clay is thinner than a bubble of air caught in the clay upon baking it may be more liable to crack? If not I've been over worrying this entire time ngl. *Edited for re-wording.*
I'm guessing you're talking about oven bake clay? If so, air bubbles don't matter structurally, but if you're talking about clay that needs to be fired in a kiln, if you don't wedge your clay before sculpting it hypothetically won't matter.. logically the thicker the clay the more air bubbles there could possibly be.. The wonders of wedging clay LOL
My art teacher did not lie!!! HA She never told us anything about holes, actually lol. Love that woman. Though, the most brutally honest art teacher you'll ever meet. She's helped me learn so much over the years.
"You're art teacher lied to you." Why did my mind immediatly assume you were just going to tell us our art just wasn't as good as the teacher would say it was?
Mine either waited for them to dry completely or had us poke a hole if it's hollow (Which I did for one of my final pieces in our pottery unit bc it would've taken at least two weeks to dry had I not hollowed it out)
That pumpkin shaker reminds me of Over the Garden Wall. 🖤 Enoch and the other folks in Pottsfield. (Then, to find out Enoch was just the black cat 🐈⬛️ 😅) That would be so cute, to see you make another pumpkin shaker with a black cat popping out 🖤
@themidorihouse Ahhhh!!! I knew I recognized it!!! It looks SOOOOO adorable!! OTGW is one of my all-time favorite comfort shows 🖤🖤🖤 Your little Enoch pumpkin is soooooooo stinkin cute!!! I can't wait to see everything you make for this year and for spooky season! 🖤🐈⬛️🫶🐈⬛️🖤
I remember spending weeks on my sculpture only for every piece in the kiln to explode. My friends piece was also in there so we got to share the pain. It sucks because we were both really into the project and put so much effort into it, the other students whose pieces exploded didn't care. I still wish I had taken pictures beforehand.
This actually helps a lot! My mom and grandma have kilns and i want to make pieces that dint crack, sometimes they crack during the drying and i feel like slip is the solution. But those are so cute! I usually make like cups or stuff with a whole already involved. Also when ot co.es to clay like that you have to have sure there arebt air bubbles from mashing it and restarting a project, its theaor bubble that causes the big problem.
My ceramics teacher was a right ‘piece of work’. She used to go sell at the markets and things ‘disappeared’, ‘got dropped by another class’, ‘exploded in the kiln’ …only they didn’t and she sold them.
Well the air expands inside of the clay, many high school art teachers either don’t have the proper kilns to easily/efficiently do a preheat/candle which warms and drys the clay but keeps everything below boiling point until the heat can be ramped up. Once you have water or air in the clay that hits boiling point that rapid expansion is what makes the clay explode. To be safe I always load the kiln full of dry pottery and I pot the lowest element on low with 4 of the plug holes at the top unplugged (sometimes if I’m concerned I will prop open the lid) I’ll do that for 3 or 4 hours. Then the next day I will fire the kiln normally. This GREATLY cuts down on explosions.
Nah my art teacher was real af, if a piece shattered we held a funeral, if it ecploded and break other pieces we would point and scream MURDERER (at the art piece not the student, in fact the student would scold the pieces usually)
My art teacher taught me somewhat of both? It was more a long the lines of, be sure that there aren't pockets of moisture inside your clay as that could not dry properly and cause an explosion ruining the piece. So what we did is we made sure to leave our clay pieces on a drying rack that didn't cook the clay, but allowed any excess moisture to dry. And none of our projects exploded except for a few people who don't listen.
As someone who studied ceramics and chemistry in college, I can confidently say it is much more likely that it has to do with the air expanding inside a hollow vessel when it’s in the hot kiln than how dry the pot it is when it goes into the kiln. The tiny shakers likely do not have enough trapped air to force it way out of the vessel, especially if the walls are on the thicker side. It can be a tiny hole, but the general rule is that a hole is necessary for a hollow vessel
Haven't had mine explode but my art teacher said it's because of air bubbles. The air needs to go somewhere whilst being fired and if you have an air bubble in your piece it will explode or a piece of the sculpture will come of where the air bubble was. Seen it happen to my peers plenty of times.
My high school was an art school (not American, different school system) never heard of this lie. The first time we did an actual sculpture the teacher immediately teached us that before cooking it we neeed to make sure that while we worked to not leave air bubbles inside the sculpture (or it would break while cooking), make it hollow and let it dry completely. Never had to make holes, but interesting to discover this now
My art teacher told us if you make something hollow then you have to let it dry completely. Also I was the only one in my class and the other classes that could make pots on the wheel. Everyone stuck to making things by hand so I didn't have to go by that rule. Man I miss those days😢
I think that its because most art teachers have to buy their own equipment with a very low income so they dont want the chance of them exploding.. Plus they don't want the students that have the chance of their art being destroyed while possibly destroying other's art and then everyone being depressed
Hollow pieces don't cause them to explode. Moisture in the clay releases steam inside the hollow space and causes the pressure to build up, which is what causes it to explode. There are two ways to avoid this: by using a hole or just actually letting the clay/ceramic dry properly before firing.
If you make a large piece with complex hollow shapes (ESPECIALLY TUBES) then it will explode not from it being too wet but the air expansion, how I fixed that wasnt with holes but rather just preheating the clay
I feel like my art didn't really lie to us. I think she just told us that because some people in class made really big or solid pieces and they would have taken weeks to dry completely (unlike the cute little pumpkin) and we only had the class for like 3 months. Either way I didn't know this so thanks for sharing! 😊
My high school art teacher completely killed my inspiration for art. Ever since I’ve graduated my art has been so much better! My advice to people in school is don’t listen to those teachers, do your own research! Experiment with everything! The world is your canvas!
its to do with the thickness of the clay and the expansion of it in firing. Though I do not recommend hollow pieces without ventilation its easy done if you know what your doing.
You don’t have to have a hole in any piece, but without it, the drying process would take way longer (for bigger pieces at least). What causes the ceramic to explode is moisture and air pockets, not the lack of hollowness
The reason is, the water inside the clay is easily trapped, and when it heats up during the firing process, the water boils and expands which can cause sculptures to crack or explode. Most art teachers don't have time to really explain how clay works in the short time they have to teach it, so most ask students to make hollow pieces and add holes so the pieces dry faster/let the water vapor escape. Even a hole the size of a needle can let that hot air out and save your piece.
I can say, this is true. My art teacher used me as a student art teacher and told me this fact, but because she had each class full of 20 kids, she decided to let us do nothing hallow
Air bubbles are weak points in the pieces. They’re more prone to cracking while air drying, in the bisk or during glaze cuz the inside dryers slower than the outside without a hole. And with Raku firing the risk of cracking is even higher (which is why hallow pieces need a bigger hole for Raku). but even tho there’s risk it doesn’t mean it’s not possible. 👍🏻
I made an old fashion TV once. Hollow in the middle, I put two clay balls wrapped in paper towels inside so when it got fired in a kiln, it burnt the paper away. I glazed the outside, I didn’t put any holes in it, and it didn’t explode. I just have a really cool box TV with balls inside it so jingles.
I wish I listened to my art teacher because part of my piece still exploded damaging not only my artwork but my classmates as well even though it had 4 weeks to dry because of how early I finished it.. It was a big hollow eye of a sculpture of a mimic from DND
That’s interesting. My art teacher never told me that I needed holes. But he did tell me it needed to be hollow if I was making a big thing or it would explode
you can also use old newspaper on the inside to help keep the structure and have it dry from the inside out because the paper is absorbent and helps. Then once it's being fired the paper burns up completely and you have a hollow piece. At least that's what my art teacher taught us
Never had a hollow piece explode in school but a teacher once put in the wrong temperature on the kiln when we where firing after glacé. That had an interesting effect, all the pieces with a dark glacé melted completely, and the light was mostly ok, only the ones close to the heating elements got “bubbly”. I had a two piece set with a white koi and a black koi, the white was ok but the black was just a puddle. I hade a small clay version of a bigger sculpture in that firing, it was a heart and it stood near both the heating element and a classmates black sculpture so it got half black from the melted one and bubbly. I made the teacher a placard with the date of her failure and that we still loved her and gave her that together with the heart. She was a lovely teacher and she felt so bad for her mistake she actually cried when she told us about it, I don’t think anyone got genuinely angry at her. I was a bit sad and disappointed to lose a few pieces but we were all laughing at it in the end. She still had my gift on display in her office when I visited her a few years after I graduated 😂
Let me be clear!! This video is only on hollow with no hole vs hollow with a hole. Shorts only allow 1 minute which means 30 seconds of this video and the caption are missing. I got on to explain teachers do not have the time to completely dry pieces which is why the hole is important. I suggest just putting a hole because, let’s be real, better safe than sorry. I also mention, size, clay body, kiln temp/schedule all effect the success of firing hollow.
have a beautiful day go make some cute stuff ❤
I think you could actually explain it in this short video, but you talk too slow, and ramble on and on and just not get to the point.
@@mochipii thanks for the feedback 💖 this video was originally posted on other platforms that allow longer content and where the audience enjoys my yappin 😅
@@mochipii Rude lol I love their voice and cadence
@@mochipii you’re a sad sad person
@@mochipiiwow that was so rude
i think its more accurate to call it a misconception. teachers dont have the time to fully dry a piece before firing, they have a curriculum to keep up with
I also think they have a higher responsibility to _all_ of the students - they need to control the risk of a piece exploding, because the kiln is full of everybody’s work
Yep both responses are true! I've got three projects for sixty students most years.
This- i became advanced at pottery and the teachers assistant , got to learn the details for this reason. After being responsible for loading the kiln and unloading the kiln after waiting days for a full load i totally understood why she didnt tell the kids that it wasnt truly necessary for forms to last
Maybe but my art teacher also never explained additive and subtractive primary colors.. and I don’t care if that’s upper level art or not.. my primary colored paintings always looked like poop and when I asked her she never explained why.
@@thisissshemy art classes that used paint , uses cyan, magenta and yellow, titanium white, and black. In college I never used RBY. In ceramics, we were told "no kichy stuff".. nothing you can find in a lucky charms box. Therefore, no primary colors were available either.
My art teacher didnt tell us that they exploded, so a student made a hollow one to use less material and it exploded and took two other sculptures with it 😭
Should I laugh, or cry?
@@ms.pirateyes 😂😭
This!! My artwork almost completely shattered because an eyeball exploded! It was a sculpture of a mimic from dnd for Halloween and it destroyed several other pieces my peers made 😢
@@aeugh4791ofc it was some dnd kid who made it explode
And this is why we prefer all pieces have a hole. The pieces made in class are a one time project, fired with many many others. Having one piece explode and break others has consequences for multiple people. I'd much rather demand my students oke a hole in their work than have to console three others on their ruined work. Also our rooms don't have the best drying capacity. Even if we left them longer than technically needed there might still be some moisture in a couple pieces .
My art teacher told us that its only necessary to make a hole when the sculpture is 2 or more inches thick, otherwise she just forced us to wait longer than necessary for the clay to dry and then fire it
Same here! All my ceramics and art teachers only told me to either hollow it out so it was less than 2 in thick and allow for FULL drying (over a week often) OR I could poke a few holes or make one big hole in the back
My suspicion is that older / old school teachers are the one lying to their classes and now slowly (literally) dying off
I see it at the school I work at
most Millennial/ Gen Z teachers are more likely to tell their classes the truth
While all Boomer teachers I met tend to tell quick lies to shut the kids up
(GenX is a mostly mixed group)
But GenZ/Millennial teachers actually have better results and get more respect
in the end because fascinatingly children learn how to tell who is lying to them 😱
And even more fascinating is the fact they tend to listen more to people that don’t lie to them 😱😱😱
The same here
Most times that's not an option and fighting with a kid to to explain that isn't worth it. Easier to lie
@@tyblipsthis is why kids don’t trust lmao
(I’m not saying you personally are creating the worlds problems, no hate)
When you said "your art teacher is lying to you" i expected you to tell me my art was trash lol
Me 2 😂 LMAO
nah because same
Same HAHA
SAAAMME HAHA
Basically, there are 2 mutually exclusive truths: you can fire a hollow piece with no hole (if it's completely dry) and you can fire a piece that's not completely dry (if there are no air pockets). It's the closed space + mousture that leads to explosions because the moisture increases pressure in the space when heated. So the best practice is to dry the puece and leave space for moisture to escape, especually when your work is being fired with other peoples'.
best explanation in this comment section
i had to a professor fire an entire 25lb block of clay one time. he just dried it and fired realllllyyyyyy slow
Yeah, we used to make ceramic bells. Basically put a small hollow sphere with no holes inside a larger sphere with holes in it and a loop for hanging it. They sound pretty wild and they tend to break after a while if you mess with them too much, but they always survived the kiln.
It's the same with air bubbles. People are so worried about air bubbles but as long as the piece is completely dry before firing, it'll most likely be perfectly fine
I thought the lie my art teacher told me was going to be that I'm good/have potential in the art world. I was prepared for the worst.
Me too lol
My ceramics teacher told us that our projects need to have holes if they were hollow even if the hole is tiny because when the kiln heats up the air expands and the piece explodes
Air (and most gases or gas mixtures you're likely to encounter) is really compressible! Some pieces with weak walls may not be able to contain the higher air pressure but the air pressure isn't generally going to be a major deal just from a physics standpoint.
@@AgentLane13plus there shouldn't be much of a pressure difference because the air around the piece would be roughly the same temperature as the air inside.
I work with porcelain. Pieces can exploded becquse the air trapped inside expands in the heat and if tjwr is no airhole in your hollow piece there are only tree outcomes. 1. It will break open at the weakest point, 2. itself expands (actually happend once, was really funny) and 3. it creates so much force that it will in fact explode. But you are also right, not fully dried pirces may also expode because of the trapped water. It's importend to let thicker pieces dry out completly
Absolutely !! On other platforms I was able to go into more detail (this video had 30 more seconds and a full caption)
I go over teachers not having enough time to let pieces properly dry. Also how clay body, firing temp and schedule will also have a huge impact on how pieces dry and fire with no hole! The big point is that air expands far less than water does so make sure your pieces are fully dry before firing !!!
This honestly just caused more confusion than clarification 😆
My ceramics teacher taught us how to make hollow balls, I didn't realise people thought this. Can confirm, they do not explode without holes unless they're still wet.
Yeah it’s less actual ceramics teachers from what I’ve seen who told this lie or made this mistake depending on which it was, and more the general school teachers (K-12th) that said it. That’s because - as OP mentioned in a pinned comment and I believe in the full length video - art teachers who only have the students for a short time out of the whole school day sometimes not even every day have too much to teach to be able to wait until a piece that takes longer to dry is safely ready for the kiln. Glad your teacher knew better and taught better!/gen
That makes me think my art teacher actually dropped my snowman that was Xmas gift for my gma in highschool and not that it exploded.... because nothing else in the kiln was damaged 😢
Oh nooooo. That is terrible. I can’t decide which would be worse. Thinking it was your fault or discovering it was the teachers.
I help my ceramics teacher sometimes during the school and one time I was cleaning when I heard one explode. While she's correct they don't need a hole they can still explode if they don't because they might not be fully dry or other reasons
I’ve definitely seen pieces explode in the kiln before. It’s not impossible. Especially in a school setting where there’s not time to let every single piece dry.
If it was not dry, it could still have exploded
Depending on how your teacher put the pieces in, its possible only yours exploded and didn't touch any of the other sculptures inside the kiln (happens often, im a TA for a few hs sculpture classes), but if she did drop it I'm so sorry.. at least super glue can probably help 🫡
(Also If it helps your peace of mind, it's easy to tell a drop VS an explosion based on how the cracks look, if your snowman was shattered instead of chunks or pieces missing, I hope your art teacher's pillow is moist tonight..)
Your voice is so calming.
Enoch!! I love over the garden wall!! 🎃
Thats what I was thinking😭😭 I was hoping someone noticed it too
Yeah I’m sorry but this is mostly wrong. As a ceramic artist I can tell you hollow pieces actually dry faster, the thicker the clay the more water it contains and the father the water has to evaporate. Hollow pieces without holes will explode when the air particles expand with enough force, this is more likely to happen in bigger pieces. Solid items are also likely to explode if not dried completely. The water in the object if not fully dried will cause cracks and breaks and potential explosions. Smaller hollow objects are less likely to explode because there is less air. Do not take the word of this person at face value, what she says is logically inaccurate
I have kilned larger hollow pieces, smaller, thicker, thinner, no explosions. In the full video (and captions) I explain that how large your piece is, the clay body and firing temp/schedule play a huge roll in successful firing. I also suggest just putting a hole in a piece to be safe. This isn’t about solid vs hollow this is only speaking in hollow with no hole vs hole with a hole.
You’re basically saying the same thing she said but with more words
Yea, also a potter and you're talking theoretical while she is talking about the exceptions to your theory. What she is saying is true and has examples to show for it. Not just in her work but in countless other examples and my own work that follows the same principles by coincidence. Lots of works fired in a communal kiln and havent had any explosions because I took the necessary steps to account for the factors at play for my pieces.
The elitism is disturbing. They’re also an artist though idk if what they’re using is ceramic. You’re not somehow different or above them for that? And you said the same thing they did with a bunch more words and deliberately ignored the exceptions to the hard and fast rules you made. Clearly your rules aren’t universal because this artist has several pieces of multiple sizes with and without a hole proving you wrong. Humble yourself and stop trying to feel superior. Thanks!
@@littlesparkkitten not at all trying to be elitist in any way here. However I have had many students come into my shop saying the same thing and it caused their pieces to go wrong. To make a blanket statement like your art teacher lied to you is damaging to future ceramic artists. Making such statements without adding clarification to the statements can set unrealistic expectations. In addition she is a ceramic artist, it says it on her page. Any clay body that is fired in a kiln is considered ceramic.
My teacher was just trying to make sure everyone's peices survived! All the peices go in together and some kids care way more about thier work than others. When you're dealing with a bunch of dumbkids, it's best to er on the side of caution.
They should just be honest and say what we don’t have is enough time to make hollow pieces… but if we leave it a few weeks and you’re happy to wait we can revisit these in another class! It would add so much enrichment to this class and they would gain perspective on the fact ceramics take TIME this lesson would help them understand the patience it takes and those who wait will be rewarded.
Your ceramic art style is amazing
@Artistic_adornmentss
I never knew any art teacher in my life who was NOT lying. Man I'm so glad I never have to deal with high school art teachers again
yeeee as a ceramic student going into my second year in school it's a priority to add a hole just for safe measures, but yes if it's fully drynit has a less chance of exploding.
But we add holes since we only have so much time for projects 😂
My middle school art teacher basically told me that teaching me was a waste of effort. She was so mean to me no matter what I did. She's dead now. Thanks for saying this even if that's not what you meant.
My middle school and high school had no art teacher because they said the students didn’t appreciate the class enough so when the old art teachers retired they just turned the rooms into detention rooms, you could still see peoples paintings on the ceiling tiles.
It’s looks AMAZING but the sounds 🫠lol
this is cool to know. I work at a school and run the kilns, I'm fairly new to it so there's a lot to learn. And yes we always make sure student works have holes, which to be fair we can rarely leave works to completely dry just due to time constraints and volume of things that need firing so in the context of a highschool we do need the holes 😊 but for personal works this is nice to know!
absolutely !! In the full video I go on to explain schools just don’t have the time so just put a hole in it. What yall do is amazing!! Worth noting clay body, firing temp and speed will also play a part in your success firing hollow. Good luck have fun !!!
@themidorihouse thankyou! I love running the kilns and so far have had no incidents which feels so good but I'm loving finding out new things along the way about firing schedules and glazes and all that comes with working with clay
it's a combination of it needing to be fully dry and the firing going to fast. If something is hollow, when you begin to fire it the residual moisture in the clay will essentially form steam within that space. That steam will want to expand at a rate much more than the clay itself so eventually if the pressure of the steam becomes greater than the vessel can withstand it will give and explode. If there's a small hole then it allows the steam to release and less pressure to build up. As long as your vessel has a sound structure and it was given enough time to air dry first, then it shouldn't matter.
Im glad my art teacher was completely honest about all this
I absolutely LOVED my ceramics teacher! I was the only student allowed to run the kiln. He was a Marine Veteran & really cared. I just looked it up, Mr. Sutton is still teaching ❤.
You could do something similar to some snowpants! Have the tighter under layer for the tics and a loose over layer to cover the cinch.
My art teacher told me i would go nowhere in life if I can't make a cereal bowl with 3 different designs from basically sctratch in 4 days! Glad to know she was lying to me!
I heard my sculpture teacher say this about two days ago, she's really chill and nice :3
Yippie for nice art teachers !!!
Low and very slow if you have air even when dry is best because students mostly don't have this skill and knowledge on all proper procedures to the rule exceptions. Also thick clay that has a pocket that is fully dry will still also explode, seen it happen and it was bad
Just from this, the teacher was technically correct and wasn't lying.
Thick pieces still need holes guys, she’s not negating that. She’s simply stating that if small hollow pieces are exploding, chances are they still have moisture in them. Pieces with moisture of any amount left in them and a hole are still more likely to explode than a completely dry pieces with no hole. The hole doesn’t matter on a piece that isn’t dried properly, it’s still more likely to explode.
Those stars are freaking cute.
@Artistic_adornmentss
I'm not a horrible artist doomed to be unable to complete something so simple as drawing two parallel lines!? You're so kind!
aww!! they’re adorable!🥹💖 If only I have a kiln at home, I would make a million of these babies🤣✨Good work!
Awww I spot a tortoiseshell cat! 😻 she looks just like mine!!
I'm going to be an art teacher next year! Glad to hear this. You have such cute art
Maybe if the clay is thinner than a bubble of air caught in the clay upon baking it may be more liable to crack? If not I've been over worrying this entire time ngl.
*Edited for re-wording.*
I'm guessing you're talking about oven bake clay? If so, air bubbles don't matter structurally, but if you're talking about clay that needs to be fired in a kiln, if you don't wedge your clay before sculpting it hypothetically won't matter.. logically the thicker the clay the more air bubbles there could possibly be..
The wonders of wedging clay LOL
it’s not only that, but art teachers have hundreds of pieces to fire, they don’t have the time to wait for everything to completely dry
a valid reason was also, if your piece does end up going boom boom, you will likely be the cause of another student's creation being destroyed
I adore these so much but I could not help but lose my mind laughing at the star essentially having a butthole 😂😂
My art teacher did not lie!!!
HA
She never told us anything about holes, actually lol. Love that woman. Though, the most brutally honest art teacher you'll ever meet. She's helped me learn so much over the years.
These are SO CUTE
I was lied to by art teachers for years, especially in college
We made some shakers in school, I still have mine! I love the paper stars ❤ ⭐️
Ive never had an art teacher say that
the stars are actually kinda cute tho-
@Artistic_adornmentss
"You're art teacher lied to you."
Why did my mind immediatly assume you were just going to tell us our art just wasn't as good as the teacher would say it was?
My old high school art teacher was a terrible person. To a point that nobody felt bad when her car was stolen by one of the students. 😭😭😭😭
Mine either waited for them to dry completely or had us poke a hole if it's hollow (Which I did for one of my final pieces in our pottery unit bc it would've taken at least two weeks to dry had I not hollowed it out)
These are the best things I've seen in a while, you could make a fortune, start selling them, for real
That pumpkin shaker reminds me of Over the Garden Wall. 🖤 Enoch and the other folks in Pottsfield. (Then, to find out Enoch was just the black cat 🐈⬛️ 😅) That would be so cute, to see you make another pumpkin shaker with a black cat popping out 🖤
I love this idea 💖 the pumpkin is based off of Enoch !!
@themidorihouse Ahhhh!!! I knew I recognized it!!! It looks SOOOOO adorable!! OTGW is one of my all-time favorite comfort shows 🖤🖤🖤 Your little Enoch pumpkin is soooooooo stinkin cute!!! I can't wait to see everything you make for this year and for spooky season! 🖤🐈⬛️🫶🐈⬛️🖤
I like the placement of the "vent" hole 😂
I remember spending weeks on my sculpture only for every piece in the kiln to explode. My friends piece was also in there so we got to share the pain. It sucks because we were both really into the project and put so much effort into it, the other students whose pieces exploded didn't care. I still wish I had taken pictures beforehand.
The little Enoch is soooo cute!!
@Artistic_adornmentss
This actually helps a lot! My mom and grandma have kilns and i want to make pieces that dint crack, sometimes they crack during the drying and i feel like slip is the solution. But those are so cute! I usually make like cups or stuff with a whole already involved. Also when ot co.es to clay like that you have to have sure there arebt air bubbles from mashing it and restarting a project, its theaor bubble that causes the big problem.
My high school art teacher was evil and said nothing nice except maybe twice. Kinda endearing in a way
Sooooo adorable 😍 I love how they turned out! Keep it up! Just seeing your creations made me happy ❤
thank you 😭💖
That giant star makes such a lovely sound 😊
@Artistic_adornmentss
My ceramics teacher was a right ‘piece of work’. She used to go sell at the markets and things ‘disappeared’, ‘got dropped by another class’, ‘exploded in the kiln’ …only they didn’t and she sold them.
Well the air expands inside of the clay, many high school art teachers either don’t have the proper kilns to easily/efficiently do a preheat/candle which warms and drys the clay but keeps everything below boiling point until the heat can be ramped up. Once you have water or air in the clay that hits boiling point that rapid expansion is what makes the clay explode. To be safe I always load the kiln full of dry pottery and I pot the lowest element on low with 4 of the plug holes at the top unplugged (sometimes if I’m concerned I will prop open the lid)
I’ll do that for 3 or 4 hours. Then the next day I will fire the kiln normally. This GREATLY cuts down on explosions.
My sculpture teacher called the hole the ash hole. He’s the best.
Nah my art teacher was real af, if a piece shattered we held a funeral, if it ecploded and break other pieces we would point and scream MURDERER (at the art piece not the student, in fact the student would scold the pieces usually)
My art teacher taught me somewhat of both?
It was more a long the lines of, be sure that there aren't pockets of moisture inside your clay as that could not dry properly and cause an explosion ruining the piece. So what we did is we made sure to leave our clay pieces on a drying rack that didn't cook the clay, but allowed any excess moisture to dry. And none of our projects exploded except for a few people who don't listen.
As someone who studied ceramics and chemistry in college, I can confidently say it is much more likely that it has to do with the air expanding inside a hollow vessel when it’s in the hot kiln than how dry the pot it is when it goes into the kiln. The tiny shakers likely do not have enough trapped air to force it way out of the vessel, especially if the walls are on the thicker side. It can be a tiny hole, but the general rule is that a hole is necessary for a hollow vessel
I have kilned larger(I have a large kiln as well) smaller, thick, thin no problems!!
OH MY GOD YOUR CAT 😭 SEEING HER MADE MY DAY, I'VE BEEN MISSING MY SWEET LITTLE MANX KITTY
my middle school art teacher expected me to do my signature at the age of 12, like bruh and she also thinks i can do realism
The pumpkins reminded me of the pumpkin people from over the garden wall
Haven't had mine explode but my art teacher said it's because of air bubbles. The air needs to go somewhere whilst being fired and if you have an air bubble in your piece it will explode or a piece of the sculpture will come of where the air bubble was. Seen it happen to my peers plenty of times.
Your teacher was lying to you”
You mean… I WASN’T a pleasure to have in class?! 🥺
My high school was an art school (not American, different school system) never heard of this lie.
The first time we did an actual sculpture the teacher immediately teached us that before cooking it we neeed to make sure that while we worked to not leave air bubbles inside the sculpture (or it would break while cooking), make it hollow and let it dry completely.
Never had to make holes, but interesting to discover this now
My art teacher told us if you make something hollow then you have to let it dry completely. Also I was the only one in my class and the other classes that could make pots on the wheel. Everyone stuck to making things by hand so I didn't have to go by that rule. Man I miss those days😢
I think that its because most art teachers have to buy their own equipment with a very low income so they dont want the chance of them exploding.. Plus they don't want the students that have the chance of their art being destroyed while possibly destroying other's art and then everyone being depressed
Hollow pieces don't cause them to explode. Moisture in the clay releases steam inside the hollow space and causes the pressure to build up, which is what causes it to explode. There are two ways to avoid this: by using a hole or just actually letting the clay/ceramic dry properly before firing.
If you make a large piece with complex hollow shapes (ESPECIALLY TUBES)
then it will explode not from it being too wet but the air expansion, how I fixed that wasnt with holes but rather just preheating the clay
I feel like my art didn't really lie to us. I think she just told us that because some people in class made really big or solid pieces and they would have taken weeks to dry completely (unlike the cute little pumpkin) and we only had the class for like 3 months. Either way I didn't know this so thanks for sharing! 😊
It's moments like this that I wish I didn't have misophonia
I was always taught it was the water in general that made it explode but i also had a great art teacher
They're really cute!
The enoch pumpkin shaker is adorable!
My high school art teacher completely killed my inspiration for art. Ever since I’ve graduated my art has been so much better! My advice to people in school is don’t listen to those teachers, do your own research! Experiment with everything! The world is your canvas!
What makes a piece explode is if it's not 100% dry yet internally. My art teacher taught me that lol
Both air and water expand when heated, water just expands a lot more !
its to do with the thickness of the clay and the expansion of it in firing. Though I do not recommend hollow pieces without ventilation its easy done if you know what your doing.
You don’t have to have a hole in any piece, but without it, the drying process would take way longer (for bigger pieces at least). What causes the ceramic to explode is moisture and air pockets, not the lack of hollowness
The reason is, the water inside the clay is easily trapped, and when it heats up during the firing process, the water boils and expands which can cause sculptures to crack or explode. Most art teachers don't have time to really explain how clay works in the short time they have to teach it, so most ask students to make hollow pieces and add holes so the pieces dry faster/let the water vapor escape.
Even a hole the size of a needle can let that hot air out and save your piece.
I can say, this is true. My art teacher used me as a student art teacher and told me this fact, but because she had each class full of 20 kids, she decided to let us do nothing hallow
My art teacher didn’t lie, someone’s exploded and a piece ended up in someone else’s project
Air bubbles are weak points in the pieces. They’re more prone to cracking while air drying, in the bisk or during glaze cuz the inside dryers slower than the outside without a hole. And with Raku firing the risk of cracking is even higher (which is why hallow pieces need a bigger hole for Raku). but even tho there’s risk it doesn’t mean it’s not possible. 👍🏻
One year someone's art did explode in the cilm and ruined some of the other students ceramics. It was sad.
My art teacher never told me this LOL
I made an old fashion TV once. Hollow in the middle, I put two clay balls wrapped in paper towels inside so when it got fired in a kiln, it burnt the paper away. I glazed the outside, I didn’t put any holes in it, and it didn’t explode. I just have a really cool box TV with balls inside it so jingles.
I wish I listened to my art teacher because part of my piece still exploded damaging not only my artwork but my classmates as well even though it had 4 weeks to dry because of how early I finished it.. It was a big hollow eye of a sculpture of a mimic from DND
That’s interesting. My art teacher never told me that I needed holes. But he did tell me it needed to be hollow if I was making a big thing or it would explode
Thank you and they're all so cute
you can also use old newspaper on the inside to help keep the structure and have it dry from the inside out because the paper is absorbent and helps. Then once it's being fired the paper burns up completely and you have a hollow piece. At least that's what my art teacher taught us
My little paper star shakers keep the paper inside and they dry SO fast !!
i think it's so accidents are heavily avoided. kids don't like to listen, it's precautions
Lie is a bit much. When you have up to 20 different student pieces in at once you're not trying to play the 'is it bone dry yet' game.
Never had a hollow piece explode in school but a teacher once put in the wrong temperature on the kiln when we where firing after glacé. That had an interesting effect, all the pieces with a dark glacé melted completely, and the light was mostly ok, only the ones close to the heating elements got “bubbly”. I had a two piece set with a white koi and a black koi, the white was ok but the black was just a puddle. I hade a small clay version of a bigger sculpture in that firing, it was a heart and it stood near both the heating element and a classmates black sculpture so it got half black from the melted one and bubbly. I made the teacher a placard with the date of her failure and that we still loved her and gave her that together with the heart. She was a lovely teacher and she felt so bad for her mistake she actually cried when she told us about it, I don’t think anyone got genuinely angry at her. I was a bit sad and disappointed to lose a few pieces but we were all laughing at it in the end. She still had my gift on display in her office when I visited her a few years after I graduated 😂