Art and Design courses

About Ceramics - BA (hons) Degree in Cardiff Metropolitan University

Course Overview

Clay has a visual and material language crossing all cultures. It is intrinsic to people’s lives, needs and memories. A ceramist is skilled in working with this most versatile of materials. They feel the world through their hands and engage with the transformative power of materials.

The BA (Hons) Ceramics degree at cardiff Met gives you the skills to contribute to this expanding field. You will explore an anthropological approach to making, socio-geographic mapping of materials and practices, and the social capacity of skills by working with local initiatives, such as galleries, market places, collections, and as part of our ‘global studio’. You will examine creative strategies to identify your own tendencies and patterns in idea development, studying glaze and material technology to turn those ideas into form.

You will be equipped with the skills to respond to both conceptual and commercial contexts, to appreciate the breadth of the field from function to figurative, from installation to innovations in new technologies. With opportunities to work real-world contexts on live briefs, creative competitions and interdisciplinary projects, you will be encouraged to identify and build your own independent practice and work towards your future career.

​Course Content​

We embody the material of ceramics from the iron in our blood to the calcium in our bones; from the bricks making up our homes, to the cup from which we drink. It is easy to recognize that clay is the one material that we share with every single person on earth.

The vibrancy of the material has enabled Ceramics at CSAD to continually take risks and rise to creative challenges. This stems from fostering a community of ceramicists operating at undergraduate, postgraduate, and Doctoral levels, who produce a wealth of critically engaged enquiry.

Our dedicated studios will be your home throughout the course. You'll work across a broad range of processes, exploring the full potential of ceramics and gaining advanced skills. You'll learn from a team of practising ceramicists and have opportunities to experience a variety of taught practices – including:

• Alchemy - glaze technology, encompassing geographical and socio-historical debate
• Throwing – traditional pottery techniques from domestic ware and double walled vessels to sculptural composite forms
• Hand modelling – the human form in clay, from ornamental and sculptural work to fine base relief
• Cob building – traditional practices with contemporary application, encompassing sustainable builds and environmentally aware practices
• Mold making – casting in plaster, mixed-media molds (fabric/combustible), composite molds, lathe turning
• Surface pattern - printing techniques – including transfers, screen print and on-glaze
• Firing – electric, gas, raku, soda, saggar, building external kilns to explore both function and performance
• Digital fabrication – including learning software and application of 3D printing, laser cutting, CNC modelling

Employability & Careers​

Whilst your learning is designed to develop you into a rounded and capable artist/designer and intellectual, your curriculum is similarly structured with your potential in mind.

As such, the emphasis that will have been placed upon your work ethic, both creatively and academically, is matched with significant focus on real world experience; from building contacts and undertaking placements to live briefs and, should you choose so, support in forming your own business.

You can elect to take a route through your second and final years of studies where you can engage with businesses or launch your own for the moment you graduate. In your final year, rather than submit a dissertation, you have the option of devising a detailed business plan.

Throughout your time at CSAD, you will be meeting and hearing from professionals within your industry, honing your skills and ideas for commercial and professional advantage. Cross-disciplinary projects will prepare you for teamwork later on, whilst live briefs will prepare you for deadlines and the demands of tight specifications.​

Academic qualification equivalents

• Secondary School Diploma or equivalent, include one English, Grade 12 (ENG4C or ENG4U), minimum 60%

English language requirements (one of the below):

• IELTS      :      6.0 overall* with no sub score lower than 5.5
• PTE         :      Overall - 52, Reading - 51, Speaking - 51,Listening - 51,Writing - 51

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