Tools have been a major focus in this class. I’ve gotten much better with xacto knives!! I also really like using utensils like forks and spoons when I’m working with clay. Forks are great for scoring, and spoons make clay really smooth and shiny. I wouldn’t have been able to create facets in my pit fire piece without a spoon!! Before this semester, I never would have known how to use any of these tools. My favorite medium to work with was paper mache. I was able to mold it like clay, but it worked a lot better for me. Paper mache gave me a better understanding of form. One of my favorite projects this semester was my paper skull. It taught me a lot. The piece was a result of lots of trial and error. In the planning process, I thought that I would just be making a skull, but it ended up being a blood-spattered, sharp-toothed skull with a spider on its head. It was a really interesting process that I grew a lot from. My sgraffito project was really aided by my size and technique choices. My box is sort of a medium size (I use it to hold paintbrushes now!), which made it a lot easier to work with. There are four sides, which gave me four surfaces to experiment with! They’re all different, and they all represent a new technique that I learned from this project.
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I made two tripod cups: a small one and a big one. First I made clay cylinders, then used my fingers to create three little feet on each piece. I bellowed them out, added a handle to my small cup, and then they were ready for the bisque firing. After that, I experimented with glazes, did a glaze firing, and then I was finished!!
i didn't like throwing on the wheel! It was really hard for me to center my clay, and I would always end up adding the wrong amount of water, so my clay would either be too wet or too dry. Throwing looks like it should be really fun, but I wasn't successful with it.
For our paper mache project I made a fox. I sketched out some foxes to get used to the form, then created that form out of trash bags and recycled paper. Getting the shape right was probably the most difficult part of the whole process. After that, I used a flour and water paste to paper mache newspapers onto my fox. When that dried (which took a while because he's so big!), I layered on smooth paper towels and was finally able to paint when my fox was smooth and dry!! The final step was adding whiskers, which really brought him to life.
This pit fire project was really fun! I knew I wanted to make a round shape, but since I'm not great with clay, it sort of evolved into a short and wide piece with facets. After my project went through a bisque firing in the kiln, I was able to cover it in dog hair, acid, tea bags, and leaves to give it a unique look and make different colors and textures. Then I went to the pit firing party and helped build up a fire!! It was super cool, and im happy with how it turned out.
The sgraffito process was really cool! After building the structure of my box and painting it with underglaze, I could finally start etching in my design! That was my favorite part. If I were to redo this project, I would spend more time planning out what I was going to scratch into my box. But other than that, I think this was successful!
I was inspired to make a box with succulent designs for my sgraffito project. I love the idea of incorporating nature into pottery. My method of using clay is pretty haphazard. I went through a few trials trying to get the right thickness and texture for my box and relied a lot on using my hands to shape it.
I made a paper sculpture of a skull! His name is We$ley. My original vision for my sculpture was completely different than what it ended up being. I was going to be very precise and make a super realistic skull, but once I got into it, I realized that just randomly tearing paper and seeing what looks cool is way more fun. We$ley went through a lot of different phases. At first, he was a normal skull-- he even had a jawbone at one point (which I ripped off because it looked weird). Eventually, he got spiky teeth, then a black widow on his head, and finally was splattered with red paint (blood)! Despite the occasional hot glue gun burns and frustration, I love how he turned out.
My group designed a Volute Krater vase based on Alice in Wonderland. In ancient Greece, the Volute Krater was used to hold wine. For our project, I cut out the overall shape, the hearts, and the roses. I also drew the register containing Alice, the mad hatter, and the white rabbit!
Vocab: Register- A bar of designs in pottery. For example, the bar of roses is one register Sgraffito- Pottery made by scratching into clay and leaving a design behind Making an abstract paper sculpture was unexpectedly difficult. Usually I like to have a plan when I start a project, but with this project I just had to improvise as I worked. Although this was challenging, it was also part of what made the project fun. I was glad to have an opportunity to figure out what textures I could create just by experimenting with scissors and a piece of yellow construction paper.
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