Second Semester Projects
Flower Pot
I used slabs to make a small flower pot with five straight sides. I scored and slipped each face to each other. I made a hole in the bottom for drainage and I added a foot that sticks out. For detail, I drew out lines on each face, which makes the pot more interesting. I used a blue glaze. I planned to make a pot that was more geometric, so I cut out the small slabs and scored and slipped them together. I like how this project turned out, especially the glaze I used.
Moon Faced Heart
This is my current artist inspired piece. The artist I chose was Nicole Merkins and the inspiration for my piece is shown on the side. I combined the ideas of Nicole Merkin's heart face and moon faces. I really liked exploring new styles while working on this piece. I decided to use underglaze so that the color of the face could be varied and provide more detail. My progess pics are below, showing the piece before and after underglazing.
Pinch Pot 1
This is my first pinch pot in a series of four. My planning for these projects is four pinch pots that have a practical use for holding objects and food. They will all have a red/pink color scheme and be decorated with flowers. This pinch pot is rose themed. I really like how this turned out, especially the foot, as I had little trouble creating and scoring and slipping it to the bowl. One critique I have is that I could have added another coat of clear glaze to the outside, as the final product is slightly rough. My inspiration for the design is shown on the right.
Pinch Pot 3
This is my third pinch pot in a series of four. It continues the pink/red flower theme. This bowl is similar to the first one in how it is a solid color on the outside with a scattering of small designs on the inside. It differs in the wavy pattern of the rim of the bowl and this pinch pot also does not include a foot. Every project in this series is part of the matching set but are different in their own ways so as to be unique.
Pinch Pot 4
This is my final pinch pot of the series. This follows much of the same traits except it adds the characteristic of the flowers being slightly higher than the surrounding surface. This bowl still follows the color scheme and the theme but unlike the others preceeding it, it is not fully smooth all the way around.
Spirit Animal
For this project, I made a rabbit during springtime. I decided not to use glaze so the rabbit wouldn't be overly glossy as real rabbits aren't. I payed attention to making the shoulder and legs prominent so the overall body would have more form to it. For the fur, I made many scratches across the entire surface. To help attach the ears, I formed indents in the head where the ears would be places, and then inserted the base of the ears into the indents, in order to better hold the ears in place compared to only slipping and scoring it on. I used different underglazes so the fur wouldn't be uniform and would be more natural.
Lidded Box
I constructed the box using low fire white clay and two types of glaze--clear glaze and Mayco Glaze in the color Gogh Iris.
For the initial construction of the box, I took a large slab of clay and drew perpendicular lines that met in the center. This served as the center for the box, where, going outward, I marked where would be the edge of the base of the box and then where would be the edge of the top of the box. In folding up the clay to form the sides and score and slip them together, I decided to maintain a portion of the excess clay so instead of having seamless corners, the clay would fold over itself in a triangle pattern. I made the lid using a slab and four small coils.
I did not use any underglaze on this project. After firing, I applied the transparent glaze to the interior and the Mayco glaze to the outside, making sure to apply enough layers to ensure to final result would come out smooth and fully glazed.
I am very happy with how my box turned out, especially the glaze and the design.
Mask
This face originated as a spare section of clay which I then decided add facial features to. I first carved out two small circular indents, and placed spheres in them with slip. I added clay around the edges of the sphere for eyelids and made indents in them for pupils. I then formed the nose and lips and scored and slipped those on. As finishing details, I decided to add two very small coils between the nose and lips, and lightly scratch lines to give the appearance of wrinkles. I didn't use underglaze, and after firing I applied glaze and fired once more to achieve the final result.