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