Bust
Current Artist Inspired Piece
For this project, I started with a big chunk of clay and then used my hands to form it into the rough shape of shoulders, a head, and a very thick neck. Once I had the rough shape, I started using a loop tool to carve out the bottom and hollow it out. I carved out the chest/shoulders area and the neck from the bottom, and then cut a hole in the back of the head to hollow the head. I also used the loop tool to trim excess clay around the neck to make it more proportional. Then I sculpted the face of the person, omitting eyes because after I made the cheek bones and all the facial features, I liked how it looked without them. I wanted to add a really tall top hat to give the bust some height (and I was thinking about The Cat in the Hat). After I added a top hat, he really started to look like Abe Lincoln to me, so I left the hole in the head and gave him a shirt and bow tie. In hindsight, I should have given him hair etched on with a needle tool to match the eyebrows. After he was bisqued I glazed the shirt black, the tie red, the inside red, the top hat striped white and red (in homage to The Cat in The Hat), his skin paper white (because he felt like a ghost to me), and his eyesockets + eyebrows and beard greyish black. I had no expectations or plans for the construction of this piece other than a small bust and big top hat, so I just went with my impulses and took heavy inspiration from The Cat in the Hat and Abraham Lincoln. I'm happy with how it turned out.
Going into this project, I knew that I either wanted to do a piece inspired by Tschabalala Self or Jessica Brilli, who are my favorite current artists. I chose to do my piece based on a painting of a retro TV from Brilli's on her Instagram. I started by rolling a slab and then cutting it into two 2-inch by 2-inch squares and four 2-inch by 3 1/2-inch rectangles. I assembled these pieces into a box via scoring and slipping, and then cut a small rectangular hole into the bottom of the box. Then I cut out a rectangle from some leftover slab about a centimeter bigger than the one cut out of the box. Then scored and slipped the smaller rectangle onto the bigger one and trimmed the smaller one down better so it fit properly. Next, I smoothed out the whole box's edges and carved the detail onto the front with a dotting tool. Once it was bone dry, I underglazed the front of the box with the carvings on it, brown with white and black details. The rest of the TV was yellow, per the painting. Once it was bisqued, I finished it off with clear glaze. I am overall very happy with this piece. The opening/ lid of the box is on the bottom, so it acts as the TV stan,d and you would never know there was a secret compartment unless you picked it up. I think my piece looks decently similar to the source material, with a few differences due to choice and the different medium.
Mask or Wall Hanging
Alebrije
Useful Piece
For this piece, I chose to do a wall hanging. I wanted to do something similar to my collaboration piece because I like the way that line art had worked out. I started with a slab and cut it into a decent-sized square and poked a hole in one of the corners as a place to hang it from. Then I smoothed all the edges and both sides to get rid of the slab roller texture. Then I spent a while carving (with a curved carving tool) a scene with a sun, a few kinds of flowers, a ladybug, and a honeybee. After the initial carving, I went over to remove clay shavings. Then, when it's dry, I underglazed a different kind of flowers, purple, orange, and blue. I made all the stems green, the sun yellow, the sky light blue, the ladybug red, and the honeybee yellow. After the bisque, I clear-glazed the whole thing. If I could go back, I would also underglaze the sides and back the same light blue as the sky. I also wish I had filled out the space with more flowers in the carving. Though overall, I am very happy with this piece and how the colors turned out.
For my Alebrije, I decided to do a stingray. I started by rolling a slab and cutting it into a stingray shape with a needle tool, minus the tail. It was too thick on the edge, so I used a rolling pin to smooth the edges out and make them flush to the table. Then I scored and slipped a piece of clay onto the top and smoothed it out to give it a head. Then I rolled a coil to be the tail and attached it to the behind area. Next, I used a dotting tool to make eyes. Once it got leather hard, I curled the wings/ fins up to make it look in motion. After it was dry, I underglazed the entire thing black and then dotted purple, blue, and turquoise all over the top. When it was fired, I glazed it clear. I am very proud of this piece. I really like the way it turned out, and it took me a while to make it. The process of dotting on the underglaze was very tedious, but it paid off. I regret putting on too many coats of clear glaze, which caused it to have bubbles and be more foggy than clear. In the end though, I love how this project turned out.
For this project, I decided to do a whimsical little ring holder shaped like a snail. I started with moulding the clay into a flat but still thick strip with one end pointed and one end split into two long snail eyes. I then got another piece of clay and made a mini pinch pot. The small pinch pot was giving me trouble by cracking a lot before I could shape it fully, because it was small,l so I just dipped it in water. Then I bent the strip at the halfway point and made it a right angle. Then I scored and slipped the small pinch pot (shell) in the corner of the right angle. I smoothed out all the cracks and reshaped the snail's eyes to make them taller and more rounded at the ends. Then I carved a face into the snail with a dotting tool. Once it was dry, I underglazed the shell yellow, the face detailing black, and the rest of the body pink. When this piece was fully bone dry and underglazed, one of the eyes broke off, so I soaked the connecting ends in water, reinforced the outside with slip/ wet clay, and painted over it. It looked good as new. Then after it was bisqued, I glazed it with clear. This was a small and somewhat simple project, but I am very happy with how it looks, and I will get a lot of use out of it.