Water Fountain

I can safely say that this was the only project that didn’t give me issues until the very end. Combining ceramics with engineering, this goal of this assignment was to create a functioning water fountain.

I wasn’t sure if it was complete imagination, but I drew the conclusion of making a panda blowing a stream of water out of a bamboo flute. Once out the flute, the water would then recirculate through the bear’s exposed stomach cavity, acting as a container for the liquid. In order to fulfill the other requirements, I also decided to make the fountain two parts. This way, it could be taken apart to remove the water pump or hose.

The building process went surprisingly smoothly. I considered this to be my most daunting endeavor, so I thought it would be difficult to shape the clay into the form I envisioned in my head. However, with of the reference images of actual pandas, I had no issues building my piece. All of the knowledge I acquired from the previous projects seemed to guide me throughout the entire process. Slabbing, scoring, slipping, it worked in my favor. Although, since this was a long project, the only thing I had to worry about was time. As we know, clay is a material that can only be manipulated so much until it eventually dries out. I had to work on the fountain nearly every day in order to delay the leather-hard and bone-dry stages. At the end, what emerged a form that encompassed exactly what I was going for. Resting at an angle, the panda had a spherical shape. To me, it resembled those old Russian nesting dolls or the Chinese Buddha and fortune cat statues. Although, to contrast its soft appearance, ridges were repeatedly carved into the surface with a ribbing tool to give a fur texture.

The Rise of Complications

It was after the bisque firing when problems started to arise. The first thing was that a giant gap was visible between the upper body and the lip that connected it to the lower body. I am not sure why it happened as I made to seal any cracks with slurry. This most likely caused my second problem of the two fired pieces not fitting together. Thankfully, I had access to a Dremel tool in order to sand down the bottom of the upper half to make it fit better.

For the finish, I chose to use some of the recipes my peers found for Glaze Tests. However, there was one specific glaze I experimented with. Named “Cement Mouth“, I made one minor tweak to its recipe. As an observation, the original test tile seemed to have used a gray mason stain. Since I had planned to use the glaze for the bamboo and other areas, I replaced the stain with one called “Leaf Green” thinking it would have a green hue. To my surprise, both overglazes seemed to seep in the material, leaving most of the ridges visible.

Refusing to Cooperate

When it came to plumbing, the fountain and I had a love-hate relationship. It all began with the spout. This might have been a fault on my part, but whenever the water pump ran, the water would shoot past its designated spot no matter the pressure setting. To fix this issue, my first thought was to make the spout hole bigger. With the Dremel, I tried to widen the hole without much luck as the problem persisted. Afterwards, a suggestion was given to me about making holes in the hose itself to lessen the water pressure. While possible, I was never able to find a balance between the size or numbers of holes. Make the hole too big, the stream wouldn’t spurt at all, make it too small, nothing changes. It almost got to a point in which my frustration wanted me to give up and accept it how it was. It wasn’t until after our class critique that I found a permanent solution to my problem. With the help of a straw placed in the spout, the water can flow properly since it is now fixed at a certain position.

For next time, I need to scale the entire fountain bigger. If it was twice its original size, I could’ve fit the end of the hose directly through the flute, canceling the spout issue. Also, I would remember to apply underglaze. Even though I liked how the glaze seeped into the surface’s ridges, it wasn’t my intention.