What's the difference between sculpture and ceramics?

Sculpture refers to any 3D artwork, no matter what it is made from. Sculpture classes will expect from you that you produce art works instead of functional items. The materials and techniques you will be exposed to depend on the facilities and the teacher. Ceramics classes restrict what you work with to clay. A ceramics class might be more restricted to making functional items and learning to use a pottery wheel, but it really depends on the teacher. They could do hand building and let you do clay sculpture. If you really want to know contact the teacher. Basically you have to ask them for a description. Ask at whatever contact is given in the class. If it is at an university your fellow students should know or even the administrators or your adviser.

Sculpture is carving away material (knife). Modeling or building up material (plaster, clay) or casting (aluminium or bronze ). All deal with three dimensional objects Ceramics is working with clay (earthenware or stoneware) by hand and on a pottery wheel. Sculpture can use clay and clay is used in three demensions but, they are very different classes. Both are a lot of fun.

Sculpture classes are more free-form and deal with creating three dimensional works of art from a variety of materials. The sculpture class I attended focused only on working with clay, so it may vary from school to school. Ceramics classes focus on creating functional pieces (bowls, mugs, vases, etc.) from clays. If you're looking to work with a potter's wheel, this would be the class for you.

Sculpture can be made from any material, it is just to describe a 3D piece of art work. It can be done in bronze, sheet metal, junk yard scraps or recycled materials. Some define sculpture as being able to walk around the piece and see it from all sides. There is also relief 2d type sculptures that hang on the wall. Ceramics is ceramic art or pottery, it can be any thing made from any kind of fire-able clay. Pottery is making pots, ceramics is not limited to making pots as some would believe. There is plenty of art and sculpture made from clay. Some sculpture departments have different equipment, some for welding and woodworking and some are just for ceramic and bronze sculpting which is carving clay. I would ask the instructor, if you want to work in just clay, take ceramics, beginning if you are new at it. Each instructor teaches differently, ask about other instructors when you take the classes. Some ceramic instructors specialize in pottery, some sculpting usually they all teach pottery, but they don't all sculpt.

Read this! I am a senior art student at an art school and know the difference! Sculpture includes any medium that can be used to create a 3D piece. This means learning and using: all metals ( bronze, gold, aluminum) and learning how to cast and do molds, creating clay sculptures, stone carving, wood, and things like that. Ceramics is just using clay as a medium. You do not use metals or wood or anything with your pieces.

I am a senior art student and at the university that I attend, my beginning sculpture class ran through a general overview of various materials, first beginning with plaster, however, we could use other materials to create the finished sculpture. Our main sculpture though had to be made of plaster. Another sculpture we did was pouring Aluminum or Bronze, so we learned how to create a sand mold, but depending on the university, you may be taught about plaster and wax molds. One of the sculptures required the use of a found object. We could use wood, metal, plaster, fiberglass, any material we wanted with the found object. We also had to do a sculpture that included steel. With the last one we learned how to use an acetylene torch and MIG welder. At my university, there are two beginning ceramic courses, one for Handbuilding and one for Wheel. In handbuilding we learned to building up using coils and slabs and other techniques. In wheel, we learned how to use the wheels, there are either electric wheels or kick wheels you use. Ceramics is primarily limited to using clay. However, our professor has shown us how to create handles and that for some of our works and how to attach them out of wood. Also, you can create pedestals and other additions to your ceramic pieces and combine sculpture with ceramics even more. This is my focus: combining my handbuilt and wheel thrown work with other materials and making them more sculptural. Depending on your school, you may have more of a focus on wheel thrown work, which is usually functional work/pottery or they may focus more on handbuilding techniques. With clay, you have to be aware of the drying times. You have to ensure it stays to a certain wetness or sometimes you won't be able to recover it if it dries too quickly. Also, wheel thrown work has to be trimmed the day or day after. Also, with ceramics, you learn the firing process of the clay and glazing them. Depends on what you are more interested in, both are great courses. Have fun.