Sgraffito Tray

To make these trays, we took a slab of clay and put it inside of a styrofoam mold. We then painted the slabs with black underglaze and carved designs into them. After that, we dipped them in clear glaze (after putting wax on the underside). I found nothing successful about my piece, except maybe that I liked the idea of glass in the tray. Next time, I would come up with an initial sketch, and then a backup that I can use in case the first one I tried doesn't work. I learned that I really need to use more precise tools when carving and doing sgraffito, because the bigger the tool the less detail you can get. 

Here's a beautiful sketch of my tray.

Parachute Installation

I plastered a balloon and then painted it with acrylic paint. I then attached a small ceramic cup to the end of the parachute with some heads to hold it in place. I wish my parachute hadn't been so ugly, and I also wish we would have all put people on the ends of our parachutes for more uniformity. I thought the idea with the parachutes was cute. I don't think the final product was very successful. It looked very thrown together as a whole, and it wasn't neat. I think having more time to come up with ideas and places to put the installation would've been better, and having more uniformity among the parachutes. My parachute fell and got sorta smashed. 

Empty Bowl Project

All of my bowls are clay and were made on the wheel. They turned out pretty good (the pink one is my favorite!) and I love the wheel! I can't wait to take more classes in college. 

Unconventional materials

I had piano wires and I used it to make this girl's hair. I actually didn't overcome the obstacle of using this material, because it was really difficult and weird. Looking back, I probably could've made a tree or something, but I could not get it to work with the 2D piece I wanted. I tried attaching the hair with clue directly on the paper, then I tried applying it ok a different paper and it would not stick. The most successful part of this piece is the drawing because that's where I'm most comfortable. Next time, I would use the wire to make a 3D sculpture like a tree or a nest where messy or unkempt isn't a bad thing. I would have let us choose our own materials, because finding something to make with a material you are uncomfortable with is hard, especially when a lot of materials are more difficult than others. 

Mine and Lilian's Sparkle Illustration Friday

Lilian: 

Mine: 

Clay face

Wood

Vessel (in progress)

***IN PROGRESS***

I was trying to make the shape I had in the photo, but I haven't had any experience with the wheel, so I just used the first thing that looked good. My vessel will eventually hold makeup brushes, although it can pretty much contain anything. 

I think that I could've done better with the roses. I wish they were neater and cleaner, but I think I did my best at the time. 

Pit Fire Part 2

I used coiling for this pot and I hated it. I started out with a giant block and just made a bunch of long coils and stacked them together. It was really hard to get nice and smooth because there were a bunch of little worm clay pieces on top of each other. Burnishing made it look a lot better. 

This technique is different from regular firing because everything is put together in an actual fire. I didn't like pit firing because I don't like how inconsistent/mysterious the process is; I like knowing what my piece is going to look like. I put stuff on the inside of my piece and now it's black and chalky. Yucky.

Pit Fire Part 1

A pit fire is where you put a bunch of clay in a pit and light everything on fire. A foil saggar is what you wrap the clay in to give it a tiny environment for all of the little pieces to burn and create colors and patterns. 

These techniques create an interesting yet unpredictable range of colors on ceramics. The pieces still end up hard and dry, but the look is different because it was literally tossed in a fire. 

I tried to make the top middle vessel, but coil is hard and it didn't work. 

Form Challenge

Relief Part 2

I like the shapes I was able to create and how detailed yet simple the cardboard piece came out. Next time I would like to focus more on the glaze and getting everything even and perfect. I hadn't used glaze before I did my tile, so it turned out a lot worse than I expected it to look. I originally planned to do a mask for my final piece, but the proportions were off and there was too much detail for such a small piece. I then got the idea to do a flat duck/chick, as before I had wanted to do a little bowl but couldn't. I tried to make my duck design simpler and larger so I could achieve more details if I wanted to. The tile definitely helped me in deciding how to go about my main piece because I was able to learn from my glazing mistakes and issues with proportion. The cardboard not so much, but it was fun and I liked it. I had issues with the eyes and eyebrows of my duck and how to create them. I initially tried carving the eyes out, but it was creepy and difficult. I also did the eyebrows and then decided I didn't want them. Of course, I changed my mind and had a hard time getting them the way I wanted them in size, thickness, placement, etc. One of his wings also fell off before being fired, so I had to glue it back on after glaze. 

Relief Part 1

I was originally making a tile with the theatre mask, but it turned out horribly. I then decided to do a duck/chick tile after seeing an adorable little dish that looked like a duck. My sketch is below, but I ended up adding some feet (per your suggestion!) and also eyebrows and texture to the wings. 

Initial sketch: 

Final idea sketch: 

Kiva Ford

Kiva Ford uses glass blowing to create really intricate pieces of work. I really like the tiny details, especially the suction cups on the octopus and the shape inside that globe thingy. I like that it's a different kind of material than I would think of for a sculpture and the composition is really interesting and realistic. I don't know how the tentacles were able to be curved to nicely, but it looks very smooth and beautifully formed. 

Kivaford.com

Final Blog

I feel that I grew a lot from the beginning of class to now. I learned different techniques and skills not only from the artists that we looked at, but also from those around me. In particular, I feel that I learned a lot from my classmate Anam. I feel that I really grew as a painter from watching her do her pieces and noticing some if the techniques she used. 

I did this painting around the time she did her boat, and I feel like it was better because I saw her work. The blending and layering she did with her paint inspired me to take some of the techniques she used. Her colors were not completely blended into one another and it looked beautiful. I knew that I wanted the light to look as if it was coming from the lightbulb, and a lightbulb's light gradually fades. I took some of the techniques I saw her use (layering and mixing her colors slightly) and combined them with my favorite techniques to get a really great color  gradient. I'm really happy with the way the painting turned out, and I think a lot of my success is from watching her work on her painting piece by piece.

I also took a bit of inspiration from Anam on this piece, although not as much as the last piece. She was working on a pear painting when I started this, and again, I liked the blending and layering she did with the paint. I don't like painting realistic pieces very much, but I did add highlights on the trunk and branches to give the tree more dimension. I also used a mix of grays, browns, and blacks to give the tree some differentiation and a bit of texture. I also used many different colors on the leaves and tries to create texture with the stippling motion I used. I was much more open to experimenting with color after seeing Anam use so many different colors and hues.