Session #8 Terra Cotta

Curriculum and Activities
· Architectural terra cotta - It's definition, history, use, ingredients, manufacturing, installation, deterioration, preservation and reproduction.
· The process of making terra cotta.

The materials

Cleaning terra cotta to be duplicated


Applying release agent


Form prepared for making plaster mold

Mixing plaster


Pouring plaster into form

Removing terra cotta and plaster mold


Releasing terra cotta from plaster mold

Terra cotta released from mold

Preparing terra cotta "clay" dough

Pressing "clay" dough into mold

Clay released from mold resembles...

Original terra cotta in form

History and Integrity:

Following the sinking of the U.S. battleship Maine (1898) at the onset of the Spanish American War, Lieutenant Andrew Summers Rowan was ordered to "Take a message to Garcia" to enlist General Garcia's support. He succeeded.
These are excerpts from Elbert Hubbard’s article, "Take a message to Garcia."

“Without asking where is he? What does he look like? Who are his contacts? How do I get there he (Rowan) simply took the orders and did what he was asked to do.”

“Civilization is one long anxious search for just such individuals. Anything such a man asks shall be granted. His kind is so rare that no employer can afford to let me go. He is wanted in every city, town, and village; in every office, shop store and factory. The world cries out for such. He is needed and needed badly, the man who can carry a message to Garcia.”

A class discussion followed on the characteristics of dependability, resourcefulness and ingenuity.