Digital Ceramics

Course Description

Digital Ceramics develops skills through the use of computers and 3D modeling software in order to push the boundaries of ceramics through experimentation via hands-on assignments. Students use Rhino (CAD software) to develop and print forms in clay in order to explore the possibilities and perceived limitations of this production method.

Within the SCNS taxonomy, ART is the Art prefix. The University of West Florida publishes this at 3 semester hours through the Department of Art and Design, College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities. It is offered at approximately 2 Florida institutions.

⚠ The queue title for this number is "Digital Ceramics" and UWF agrees.

Ceramic 3D printing is genuinely new territory, and UWF is unusually specific about the software: Rhino. That specificity is useful — Rhino is a NURBS surface modeller used professionally in product, jewellery and architectural design, so the skill transfers well beyond ceramics.

The phrase "perceived limitations" is the interesting one. Printing in clay is not printing in plastic: the material sags, the extrusion is coarse, layer lines are visible and structural, and the print must then survive drying and two firings. Most of what is interesting in this area comes from working with those constraints rather than trying to hide them — and a student who expects a printer to produce a finished object will be disappointed by every print.

⚠ The contact-hour figure is derived — the University of West Florida publishes none

UWF's catalog publishes a credit value in semester hours, the college and department, prerequisites, repeatability, and fee notices. It does not publish contact hours, a lecture and studio split, or terms of offering for any course. Every contact-hour value in a UWF guide in this repository is derived. For a 3-credit studio course the figure used is 60 hours — four studio hours a week across a fifteen-week term. That matches the Florida convention for an integrated C course and is corroborated by the one studio figure published anywhere in this corpus: Daytona State's ART1331C, which states "four studio hours". ⚠ Treat it as a floor. Studio courses commonly schedule longer blocks, and studio practice expects substantial work outside the scheduled session — open-studio hours are part of how the work gets made. Confirm the schedule and the studio access hours with the department.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Navigate and operate 3D modelling software competently.
• Construct digital models using curves, surfaces, and solids in Rhino.
• Model forms suited to ceramic extrusion rather than generic 3D printing.
• Evaluate a model for printability in clay.
• Describe how ceramic extrusion differs from filament or resin printing.
• Prepare and slice a model for a clay printer.
• Set print parameters including layer height, speed, and extrusion rate.
• Prepare clay to the correct consistency for extrusion.
• Operate a ceramic 3D printer under supervision.
• Diagnose print failures and adjust model or parameters.
• Manage drying of printed forms to avoid cracking and slumping.
• Combine printed elements with hand-formed or thrown work.
• Glaze and fire printed forms and anticipate their behaviour.
• Use layer structure as an aesthetic decision rather than a defect.
• Situate the work relative to contemporary digital craft practice.
• Iterate systematically between digital model and fired result.
• Document both digital and physical stages of the work.
• Apply ceramics and equipment safety practice.

Optional Outcomes

• Develop a sustained body of work rather than isolated exercises.
• Document work photographically to portfolio standard.
• Situate your work relative to contemporary practice in the medium.
• Exhibit work in a student or juried show.
• Write an artist statement about the work produced.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• 3D modelling software operation
• Rhino curves, surfaces, solids
• Modelling for ceramic extrusion
• Printability evaluation
• Ceramic versus other 3D printing
• Slicing and file preparation
• Print parameters
• Clay consistency for extrusion
• Printer operation
• Print failure diagnosis
• Drying printed forms
• Combining printed and formed work
• Glazing and firing printed forms
• Layer structure as aesthetic
• Contemporary digital craft
• Digital-physical iteration
• Documentation
• Studio and equipment safety

Optional Topics

• Sustained body of work
• Portfolio documentation
• Contemporary practice in the medium
• Exhibition
• Artist statement writing

Resources & Tools

• Rhino learning resources — McNeel publishes free tutorials and a free 90-day evaluation; ⚠ check whether the department provides a student licence before purchasing, since educational pricing is substantial but not free.
• Blender — free and open source; a capable alternative for modelling practice at home, though the workflow differs from Rhino's.
• The studio's printer documentation and clay recipe — ⚠ ceramic printer settings are machine- and clay-specific, and generic 3D printing advice will mislead you.
• A build log — record model, clay, settings and result for every print; this is the only way the iteration converges.
• The studio's clay bodies and glaze recipes — ⚠ these are studio-specific and not transferable; a glaze that works at this studio's firing schedule will not necessarily work elsewhere.
• A ceramics reference — Peterson's The Craft and Art of Clay or Rhodes on clay and glazes; whichever the instructor assigns.
• Your own basic tool kit — ribs, needle tool, wire, trimming tools; inexpensive and worth owning rather than sharing.
• A dedicated apron and towel, and shoes you do not mind ruining — and ⚠ do not wear studio clothes home without washing them separately; that is how silica dust leaves the studio.
• A notebook for glaze and firing records — ceramics is the studio discipline where undocumented results cannot be repeated. Record clay body, glaze, application, and firing every time.
• UWF Department of Art and Design studios — open studio hours are the resource that matters most; find out what they are in week one and use them.
• A camera and a consistent setup for documenting work — a phone plus even lighting and a neutral background is enough. Photograph everything before it leaves your hands.
• Safety data sheets for your materials — free, and the studio is required to hold them.

Career Pathways

• Fine artists, including painters, sculptors, and illustrators — SOC 27-1013; ⚠ predominantly self-employed, and income is irregular. This is worth knowing plainly rather than discovering later.
• Graphic designers — SOC 27-1024; the largest paid destination for studio art graduates, and digital coursework feeds it directly.
• Special effects artists and animators — SOC 27-1014; Florida has a real cluster here through the Orlando theme-park and simulation industry.
• Art directors — SOC 27-1011; normally reached after years in a design role.
• Craft artists — SOC 27-1012; ceramics, glass and studio craft, frequently combined with teaching or markets.
• Florida employers and sectors worth naming — Walt Disney Imagineering and Universal Creative in Orlando hire sculptors, painters, model-makers and scenic artists; the simulation and training cluster in Orlando hires 3D and digital artists; and Florida's tourism economy supports scenic, signage and display work statewide.
• Museums and galleries — SOC 25-4012, 25-4013; preparator, installer, registrar and education roles.
• Art teaching — SOC 25-2022 and 25-1121; ⚠ K-12 art teaching in Florida requires state certification, which a studio degree alone does not provide — plan the education route deliberately if this is the goal.
• Art therapy — requires a master's degree and credentialing; a studio degree is the usual undergraduate foundation.
• ⚠⚠ An honest note on the economics. Very few studio art graduates support themselves from selling their own work, and most working artists hold other employment. That is not an argument against the degree — the transferable skills are real — but a plan that assumes gallery income is a plan without a foundation. Build the applied and digital skills alongside the studio practice.

Special Information

⚠ No fee notice on this entry — but budget for materials anyway

• UWF publishes no fee notice on this course, unlike most of the ART prefix.
• ⚠⚠ That does not mean the course is free to take. In an advanced studio course students commonly supply their own canvas, paint, paper, clay or media — and at advanced level, where students choose their own scale and materials, personal spending can exceed what a course fee would have been.
• Ask the instructor for a realistic materials estimate before the term, and ask what the department supplies.

⚠⚠⚠ Silica dust is the defining hazard of a ceramics studio

• Clay contains crystalline silica, and inhaled silica dust causes silicosis — irreversible scarring of the lungs. The exposure that matters is cumulative and low-level, not a single dusty afternoon, which is exactly why students underestimate it.
• ⚠⚠ NEVER dry-sweep a ceramics studio. Sweeping re-suspends settled dust and makes the air far worse than leaving it alone. Wet-mop, or use a HEPA vacuum — a domestic vacuum blows fine dust straight through the bag and back into the room.
• ⚠ A paper dust mask is not respiratory protection. Where a respirator is required it must be a fitted one, and facial hair breaks the seal.
• Wet-clean as you go. Sponge surfaces, wipe wheels and splash pans down before the slip dries, and do not let trimmings dry on the floor.
• ⚠⚠ Dry glaze materials are the highest-risk stage. Weighing and mixing dry glaze chemicals is done with ventilation and respiratory protection; many glaze constituents are toxic individually — barium, lithium, manganese and some colourants among them.
• Lead-bearing glazes must never be used on functional ware, and food-safe testing matters if you intend anyone to eat from your work.
• Kilns require training and are never opened hot. Firing produces fumes — kiln rooms are ventilated for a reason — and a kiln is not left unattended outside the studio's own protocol.
• ⚠ Wheel work is physically demanding; back, wrist and shoulder strain are common, and stool height and posture are worth getting right early.
• Tell the instructor if you are pregnant or have a respiratory condition — several standard ceramics materials and processes warrant substitution.

⚠⚠ Critique is the method — and it is the part students find hardest

• Studio courses are assessed largely through critique: work is put up, discussed by the group, and defended by the maker. It is a teaching method, not a verdict.
• ⚠ Learning to hear criticism of work you care about is a genuine skill, and it is separable from criticism of you. Students who cannot make that separation stall.
• ⚠⚠ Learning to give useful criticism matters as much. "I like it" and "I don't like it" are both useless. Describe what you see, then what it does, then whether that serves the work's apparent intention — that sequence is the whole technique.
• Bring finished work. Arriving at critique with nothing wastes the most valuable hour in the course, and it is visible to everyone.
• Document everything you make — good photographs, consistently lit, as you go. Work gets sold, given away, damaged or lost, and the documentation becomes the portfolio.

⚠⚠ Studio safety — art materials are chemicals, and some are seriously hazardous

• Read the safety data sheet for anything you use. Studios are required to hold them, and art materials are not regulated as consumer-safe by default.
• ⚠⚠ Solvents require ventilation. Turpentine, mineral spirits and lacquer thinner give off vapour that accumulates; chronic low-level exposure is the real risk, not a single strong smell. Use the ventilated area, keep containers closed, and never wash solvent down a drain.
• ⚠ Some pigments are genuinely toxic — cadmium, cobalt, chromium and lead compounds appear in artists' colours. Never eat, drink or point a brush with your mouth in a studio, and wash hands before leaving.
• ⚠⚠ Silica dust is a long-term hazard in ceramics and in any dry sanding or grinding. It causes irreversible lung disease, a dust mask is not respiratory protection, and dry sweeping makes it worse than leaving it. Wet-clean.
• Printmaking uses acids and strong solvents, and etching in particular requires specific handling, ventilation and disposal.
• Power tools, kilns, presses and torches all carry injury risk. Do not operate equipment you have not been trained and cleared on, and never work alone in a studio with powered equipment.
• ⚠ Rags soaked in oil or solvent can self-ignite. This is a documented cause of studio fires — use the metal safety can provided.
• Tell the instructor if you are pregnant or have a respiratory condition; several standard studio materials warrant substitution.

Course format and position in the curriculum

• Studio course, assessed through produced work and critique rather than by examination.
• ⚠ The scheduled hours are not the working hours. Studio practice expects substantial independent work, and students who only work during class do not produce enough to critique.
• UWF publishes no contact hours, studio split, or terms of offering for any course. Confirm the schedule and studio access with the department.

How Florida course levels affect transfer

The first digit of an SCNS number denotes the year of offering, not transferability. Courses at the 1000 and 2000 levels transfer transparently between Florida public institutions, and 3000 to 4000 is unproblematic since both are upper division. The boundary that actually matters is 2000 to 3000, where lower-division credit generally cannot satisfy an upper-division requirement. ⚠ For studio art there is an additional constraint: many programmes require portfolio review for admission to the major or to upper-division studios, and a receiving programme may accept the credit while still requiring its own portfolio review. Keep photographs of everything you make — the portfolio, not the transcript, is what moves you between art programmes.

ART4767C is 3 semester hours at the University of West Florida.