Medium and
Technique
Lesson 1
Medium Technique
Medium is the Technique describes
substance that is the skillful
manipulated. manipulation of
the medium
Medium and Technique
Visual Arts Performing Camera
Arts Arts
Pottery Architecture
Weaving Graphic Arts Theater Photography &
Digital Media
Painting Paper Craft Music
Sculpture Dance
Pottery
Pottery is the oldest art
form due to the fact that its
medium, earth, is
abundant.
Clay gathered from dry
soil is pulverized
Removing lumps,
pebbles, and stones
Water is added slowly
Kneading it for even
moisture and smooth
consistency
Terra Cotta
Refers to
earthenware that is
typically reddish
brown, fired porous
and kept unglazed.
Ceramics
Refer to clay formed with
other elements, fired at a
higher temperature to
harden the material, and
glazed to make it non-
porous.
Glazed is a coating of a
glass-like substance fused
with clay material to make
a ceramic piece waterproof.
Three basic pottery techniques
01 Free modeling
02 Hand-construction
03 Potter’s wheel
Three basic pottery techniques
01 Free modeling
Free modeling, where
shapes are formed on a ball
of clay using bare hands
Three basic pottery techniques
02 Hand-construction
Hand-construction in parts of
coil or slab and pinching
these together
Three basic pottery techniques
03 Potter’s wheel
Potter’s wheel, where a
rotating platform is used to
hollow out a ball of clay from
the center in order to shape
a vessel.
The first two methods,
free modeling and hand-
construction, can be
supplemented by the
paddle-and-anvil
technique, where a paddle
is used to smoothen the
outer surface while a
smooth stone anvil is
pressed against the inner
wall.
Bisque-fired
When a formed clay
piece is fired for the
first time, it is called a
bisque, or is said to be
bisque-fired
Glaze-fired
If a glazed is applied to
a bisque and fired a
second or more times,
it is called glazed-fired,
rendering its surface
shiny and impervious
The Southern Tagalog region
has outstanding studio potters
who teach their craft to
communities. Jon and Tessy
Pettyjohn, of Pansol,
Calamba, Laguna, are well
known for having formulated
their own glazes of celadon
and tenmoku
Celadon is glaze in pale
grayish shade of green used
on stoneware (refers to
ceramics vitreous or having
qualities of glass),
associated with the Song
Dynasty of the 13th century.
Tenmoku is a dark
glaze with a surface
that resembles oil
spotting found in
Chinese and
Japanese ceramics
A material most
ceramicists and artists
experimented with was
the volcanic ash from On the other hand, Barangay
the 1991 eruption of Bulua in Cagayan de Oro City
Mount Pinatubo. is a good source of red clay..
Rita Gudino
Professor at the University of the
Philippines College of Fine Arts (UP
CEA) in Quezon City, is a ceramic
sculptor well known for her work Lual
which consists of a pregnant figure
Birth Goddes functioning as a kiln, and
a set of clay babies fired inside it.
Lual Kiln
Weaving
Weaving is a general method of
producing a surface or an object
by entwining a strip or strand that
is longitudinal called warp with a
horizontal one called weft at right
angles or at an obliquely
perpendicular direction.
Related methods are knitting,
braiding, and plaiting, which
affect the texture and quality of
the object being formed.
Three outstanding
traditional forms of weaving
without a loom are:
Palaspas
Basketry
Banig
Palaspas
A primeval form of palm leaf
weaving is called such
because of its association
with the Catholic ritual of
Palm Sunday.
Method involves the use of
unopened coconut palm
leaves.
Basketry
The process of weaving pliant
materials into a casing. Plants
endemic to the craftman’s
surroundings are the source
of materials.
Plant parts are gathered, cut
into strips or straw, sun-dried,
boiled, dyed, and sometimes
oiled.
The four basic types of basket weaves are:
The most common materials for baskets are:
Bamboo
Rattan
Nipa
Buri
Buntal
BURI NIPA
Buntal
Banig
A mat woven from
leaves or grass.
Among the best and
most colorful mats are
made in Sulu and Tawi-
Tawi, whose weavers
use the abundant
pandan plant in
weaving.
Patadyong is a traditional
lowland textile of plaid
design used as a wrap
around skirt, tapis, or even
as hammocks
Inaul is a Maguidanaon
textile hand-loom-woven
from abaca, cotton, or silk.
They are made into tubular
skirts called malong that is
worn by both men and
women.
Women in Datu Odin
Sinsuat, Maguindanao
province, as well as in
Cotabato City, weave them
in striking colors.
Piña-Jusi
Piña and Jusi are the
traditional fabrics used by
the bordadoras. Piña is a
soft, fine, fexible and
durable off-white fabric.
Jusi is a lightweight, filmsy,
and ecru colored fabric
regarded by the bordadoras
as the best material for
embroidery.
Painting
Painting normally refers to the
process of applying color or pigment
suspended in binder onto a flat or
two-dimensional surface, such as
paper, wood, or cloth.
Painting
Indigenous coloring was mainly
applied to pottery and weaving;
painting in the academic tradition was
inherited from the West.
Common paints include
acrylic paint, oil paint,
watercolor, tempera,
enamel, and latex.
In academic tradition,
the surface to be painted
on, which is usually
fabric or canvas, is
primed to control paint
absorption of the paint,
provide uniform texture,
and preserve the
resulting image.
Sculpture …. the art of making three dimensional forms.
There are three basic methods of creating sculptre:
1. Modeling or addition in the use of clay.
Sculpture …. the art of making three dimensional forms.
There are three basic methods of creating sculptre:
2. Subtraction in carving of hard materials like some wood
Sculpture …. the art of making three dimensional forms.
There are three basic methods of creating sculptre:
3. Construction by assembling parts by adhesion or
welding.
Ukit or Wood Carving
A form of craft on wood by
mean of incising designs
with a knife or subtracting
parts of the material wood
with a chisel or mallet on
chisel for hard type.
Bulul was originally cared for
rites of ancestral worship
and intercession
Metal Craft
Metal forging uses the traditional Southeast
Asian double-forger, and employs traditional
tools. Other forms of metalwork include hand
shaping and pounding of metal sheets, a
laborious method which transforms flat metal
sheets into sturdy, solid objects such as the
Maranao kulintang ensemble and gong
instruments.
Casting
Cold-casting Kulintang Ensemble
Metal Craft
Casting is a process of forming
three-dimensional duplicates by
using molten material to solidify in a
mold made from an original art.
“Lost wax” is a method often used
in metal such as bronze for
sculpture or silver and gold for
jewelry. It involves heat to replace
the wax with the final metal material Moro Brass Jar
of the finished object.
Metal Craft
Cold-casting is a process of mixing
a variety of powder with a binder
resin and applying the mixture into
a mold.
Architecture
The creative conceptualization
of graphic descriptions of a
building (building plans) or
blueprints that address a set of
design objectives, which
considers materials, construction
techniques, and instructions to
successfully translate the
concept of the architect into built
form.
Materials
of Filipino
Architecture
Plant-based Materials
Masonry
Metals
Glass
Composite materials
Plant-based Materials
Wood or timber, bamboo,
rattan, leaves, and fibers are abundant in
historical architecture because of their
availability and readiness-of-use from
the immediate surroundings.
These materials can be
favorable for their compressive or
flexural strength, resistance to
degradation, or case of processing for
construction. Traditional building designs
considered protection against the
environment while keeping interiors cool.
Masonry
Refers to building with small building
units like concrete hollow block, brick or
stone, with mortar or palitada as a
bonding agent.
Adobe, a greyish to brown volcanic tuff,
was used in Manila and nearby
provinces, from Batangas to Tarlac.
Structures in Albay and Sorsogon were
constructed of cut lava stone or volcanic
rock.
Metals
Extracted from mined minerals
from the earth. Commonly used metals
include bronze, brass, aluminum, cast
iron, and tin.
They are favorable for their
durability and strength, which are
retained even when formed into complex
shapes. For this reason, metal is used in
piping, roofing and windows.
Glass
Made of silicates or sand, and oxides
fused at high temperatures. Oxides and
other substances control color and
opacity. Though fragile, glass has
excellent transparency and good
resistance for weather and chemicals.
Composite Materials
Made by combining two or more
materials with different properties
which result in unique
combinations of their properties.
Techniques
in
Architecture
Load-bearing Construction
Relies on the sheer weight of the
building to support itself by using
thick walls, as in the Ivatan
houses.
Post-and-lintel Construction
Consists of a horizontal member called
lintel or beam, supported at both ends by
vertical members, called posts or columns,
like those found in the traditional bahay na
bato at kahoy, bahay kubo and other
indigenous houses.
Arches, Vaulting and Domes
Masonry constructions made of
segments or blocks of stone or
brick arranged in a curved
pattern to transfer building loads
from a vertical to horizontal
thrust, allowing a building to
have larger spans.
Arches, Vaulting and Domes
Arches, Vaulting and Domes
Arches, Vaulting and Domes
Steel Frame Construction
Steel frame construction
essentially expands the post-and-
lintel grid vertically as well as
horizontally, with steel instead of
wood or stone, which can function
as a skeleton that can support
multi-level buildings.
Thin Shell
A three-dimensional curved
plate structure of reinforced
concrete whose thickness is
small compared to its dimension
and is characterized by its
three-dimensional, load-carrying
behavior which is determined by
the geometry of its form, by the
way it is supported, and by the
nature of applied load.
Folded Plate
A roof structure in which strength
and stiffness is derived from a
pleated or folded geometry. It is
a special class of shell structure
formed by joining flat, thin slabs
along their edges to create a
three-dimensional spatial
structure.
Space Frame
A three-dimensional structural
framework in which all elements
are interconnected to maximize
stability and to effect resistance
to loads applied in any direction.
Geodesic Frame
A skeletal frame based on
triangles that are grouped into
very stable, strong polyhedrons.
Suspension Construction
Consists of carrying the structure
using steel cables attached to
vertical pylons or masts.
Tensile Construction
Carries a stretched membrane, often
used as a roof in exhibition tents or
sports arenas. Suspension and
tensile construction can economically
and attractively large distances.
