Piece with Handles
Series of Four
Lidded Box
Monster
Collaboration Piece
For this project, I started by grabbing, wedging, and slab-rolling a huge piece of clay. Initially, the plan for this piece was to make a trophy-like large cup with two handles on either side. I cut out a square of slab and score & slipped the sides together to make a cylinder. Then I use a fetting knife to dart my cylinder and score & slip a small square slab to form the bottom of the cup. At this point I realized that the bottom was a little unstable and hole-y due to the slab being to thin, so I switched plans and poked holes into the bottom to make my once cup into a planter. It is a slightly strange shape for a planter but I love the whimsy of it. I then smoothed the inside and the rim of the planter with water. I then cut more leftover slab into two rectangular strips for handles and scored & slipped those on and smoothed it out. I had to use other clay to prop up the handles as they dried because they were flimsy while wet. Once the planter had gone through both the bisque I glazed it with a red and black lava-ish jungle gems glaze. Overall I am proud of my planter, I really like the body and glaze, but I do wish the handles were slightly more symmetrical.
To start this project I slab-rolled all my clay and measured out a rectangle that was 1 1/2 by 3 inches. Then I found a cookie cutter that cut out a perfect circle the size I needed by base to be. Then I scored & slipped the rectangle into a cylinder and then scored & slipped that onto the circle base. Then I used a wood tool and water to smooth all the lines and make sure that the two pieces are fully fused. After that, I shaped the rim of the dish to be more circular and thin. After I finished the first one I repeated three more times. I glazed them red, blue, pink, and purple. I made these dishes for me and my siblings as personalized little sauce treys, though they look more like little cups. I am really proud of these I think they all turned out mostly the same and they are smoothed out properly on the inside. I still plan on giving them to my siblings so mission success.
The construction of this piece quickly stayed from my original vision going into the project. I imagined doing a small-ish square box, and it did not end up either of those things. To start I didn't wedge enough clay, but I didn't realize that until I was already cutting out my pieces. Then I by accident made my squares too big, 3 inches instead of 2 1/2. At this point, I have the wrong size squares, still have to cut out one more, and I don't have enough slab left to cut out one more square. So my solution was to use the rest of the slab (not enough for a square) and make a triangle and also cut a pre-existing square into a triangle to make a triangle box. Once I figured that out I scored & slipped one of my squares to the triangle base, followed quickly by another so that they would balance on each other and not fall over. Then I scored & slipped my last square onto the triangle and smoothed out all the seams. For the lid, I grabbed my leftover triangle and traced its outline onto a piece of slab I got from Ayden and drew another triangle in the middle of that one about a 1/2 a centimeter from the original traced triangle. Then I cut out the innermost triangle out with a needle tool and score & slip it onto the original triangle in the center. That piece fits right inside the top of the box as a lid. I glazed it a greenish- blue. I am very proud of how this turned out, even after all the changes in plan. It is just the right size and the lid fits perfectly so I am happy.
When brainstorming this project I knew that I would have to make some creative changes to the reference to make it more convenient to hollow out. I decided to make its head small and skinny, then make the head depicted in the reference as a helmet that balances/sits on the smaller head. I also decided to not give the robot a second arm because it wasn't shown in the drawing so I don't have an example to go off of. To start construction I slab-rolled all my wedged clay and cut out 5 small squares equal in size. I scored and slipped these together to make the helmet, and then I smoothed out the seams and rounded the edges of the helmet box. Then I carved the pattern on the face and attached the ears/antennae Next, I cut out five more squares and repeated the same process, slightly larger, for the body. But for the body, I added two small strips to either side of the bottom of the body to create partial lips over the hollow body to attach the legs to. Next, I cut out two strips equal in length and width to be legs, then two smaller flatter ones to be feet. I scored & slipped the feet to the bottom of the legs and the legs to the bottom of the body. Then I rolled out a coil to be the arm, sculpted a mini microphone, and fastened it into the arm. I scored and slipped the arm onto the side of the body then carved an oval on the front of the body. I then attached the thin head to the body and carved a smiley face onto it. After it was dry I underglazed the body lavender, the oval blue, the eyes red, and accented the face in black and grey. After the bisque, I glazed the piece clear. I am very proud of this piece, I think that I brought the source material to life but also added my own spin in a practical way. I think it turned out looking great except the clear glaze bubbled a lot and it looks/is slightly textured.
For this project me and my parners plan was to explore themes of diverity and the feeling/perception of isolation and self-consiousness for differences despite being in a diverse society. We wanted to convey this through a scene of a ocean full of unique fish, and one dejected and sorrowful one in alone in a dark cave. Due to the fact that fish swim suspended in water I kew I couldnt do a fully 3D representaion of this idea with clay, but I decided on scrgafitto and underglaze on a slab to get our point across. I started by rolling out a slab and cutting out a large rectange from it a rounding the edges. Next, I used a wood tool to sketch my picture onto the slab. Then, I used a metal carving tool to fully carve the scene on. When the piece was leather hard I underglazed the entire scene with bright colors. Then I bisqued the piece and when it came out clear glazed it. I am proud of this piece, I really like how clean the line art and glaxing turned out. I would have liked to do a more 3D version, but I like the texture added by the carving.