Project 1 - Stamp
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For this project, I started by rolling my previously wedged clay into a ball and working from there to form a short coil. After that, I pressed one end into the table to form a flat side to carve my design on. Once I had a wide enough flat side to put the design on, I started to shape the rest of the coil to be more handle-like and smooth the cracks and bumps in the clay with water. Then, I cut off excess clay on the flat side to create a rectangle. Lastly, I etched my initials (AP) into the flat surface on my stamp using a metal carving tool. This piece was only bisqued and not glazed. One thing I didn't realize when originally making it, was that when actually used the stamp prints my initials were backward onto the clay. Although I do like the style of it backward, it is more visually appealing. In hindsight, I would have done a more intricate design, but I am proud of this as my first piece.
Project 2 - Face
Project 3 - Painted design in underglaze
My plan for this project was to make an owl face, more specifically a barn owl-inspired face. I started by wedging my clay and breaking off a piece about as big as a plum. I form the plum-sized piece into a round ball and smooth it until there are no cracks or bumps. Then I flatten one side of my ball sightly against the table to make a place for the facial features. I make indents for the eyes and score and slip on some clay to contour the beak. Then I roll small pea-sized balls and score and slip them into the eye indents, also adding more pieces of clay around the eyes to make eyelids. Once I refine the beak and eyes with a wooden pointed tool, I start using a small loop tool and a flat pointed tool to create a feather pattern on the whole face. Then I etch more feather texture around the whole head with a metal needle tool. Once I am completely done I wait for it to stiffen up a little till it's leather hard and use a bug loop tool to hollow out the inside. When it is bisqued I opt not to color it, but instead to glaze it clear to emphasize texture. I am very proud of this piece, It turned out similar to how I planned and I did not expect to be able to get it to look this much like a real owl.
The plan I came up with for this project was to make a little medallion I could put on a necklace. I started with a small piece of clay because I didn't need much for my piece, but soon found that wedging a very small chunk of clay was very difficult so I added a larger chunk to my clay. Once it was wedged I used the slab roller to flatten my clay evenly. Then I decided to make three small medallions so I could experiment with shape as well as color. I cut out a small heat, teardrop, and basic circle with a needle tool. Then I smoothed out all the edges with water and used a round pointy wood tool to poke holes in each of them to be used to hang later on. Then once I am happy with the shape and texture I decide on colors. The teardrop I paint with a blue underglaze on top and black on the sides. The heart I painted all red. The circle is the main piece that I spend the most time on, I use yellow on the sides and then use a dotting tool to make dots of yellow scattered around the whole top surface. Then I use purple and the smaller side of the dotting tool to add more dots around each yellow dot until they appear flower-like. When they are bisqued I glaze them all with transparent. I really like how these turned out, the color choice and the designs. Plus the clay body and amount used make them very light.