Whimsical House
Advanced Large Sculpture & Organic Shape
Vessel with interesting feet & Teapot
Organic Shape
For this project I already had an idea of what I wanted to do to begin with because I had a inspiration picture on Pinterest that I had been wanting to do and it fell under the umbrella of this assignment. I started by rolling out a slab and cutting it into a rectangle the size I wanted. The idea was to create a slightly 3D little scene of the outside of a cute house, kind of like a fake window. I cut strips of slab to create a frame then scored and slipped them onto the edges of the rectangle. Then I scratched out a sketch of my scene with a needle tool. Next, I molded my window frames, door frame, and planter boxes then scored and slipped them onto my piece. Then I cleaned up all the edges, carved bricks into the walkway, and added a doorknob. I then waited until my piece was bone dry and underglazed it; including underglazing each individual brick in the road. I did have a mishap where I left it out to dry without a cover and it cracked a little bit, but it repaired seamlessly so I got lucky. Once the piece had been fired the first time I glazed the inside (the part with the scene) with clear and glazed the outside opalescent blue so it would have a more patchy-worn look. I am very happy with how this piece turned out, it looks exactly like what I wanted it to. The only thing I would have done differently in hindsight is I would have put something on the back so it could be a wall hanging, but I still like how it turned out enough to to be too upset over that.
I was really stuck on what I wanted to do for this assignment so I spent a long while browsing Pinterest, still not finding anything I wanted to attempt so I just wedged a big piece of clay and started mindlessly playing with it until it was just a long, slightly cone shaped, cylinder (in hindsight I don't know how I got inspired by that). It was then that I had an epiphany that I had to do a mushroom sculpture, so I washed my hands and consulted Pinterest for inspiration. After I had my plan, I wedged and slab rolled some more clay to be my mushroom cap. I cut out a circle from the slab and used a rolling pin on the sides so that they would be rounded and thinned out at the edges. Then I returned to my mushroom stalk and used a looping tool to hollow it out enough that it wouldn't explode, but not enough that it would collapse when I added the weight of the cap. I scored and slipped the stalk onto the lid and smoothed out the entire thing. I put it under plastic and when I returned to it next class, it was just stiff enough to add details safely. I added a ring on the stalk, gills under the cap, and bumps for the spots on the lid. I also added a little mini mushroom growing off the base of the bigger one's stalk. After the bisque firing, I glazed the stalk and gills white and the cap with a red/ pink oriented jungle gems glaze (but glazed the spots on the cap white). I love how this piece turned out, and I am very happy with the jungle gem effect on the mushroom lid.
I went into this piece already having made peace with the fact that I may be scrapping it because I was not super confident in my ability to do my design but I still wanted to attempt it. I was going to make a dinosaur teapot where the head and neck acted as the spout and the tail was the handle. The first thing I did was roll a slab and create a closed cylinder about the size of a can, then cut out a circle from of the sides. Next, I rounded out the edges and tried to make it as rounded and oval as possible. Next, I made the hollow neck by wrapping another slab around a wooden carving tool, scoring and slipping it, and smoothing it out. I used a piece of my extra clay to prop the head and neck up while it was still wet and flimsy. Then I added more clay onto the end of the neck to be the head and made sure the hole through the mouth continued through the whole neck using a flashlight. Then I formed small solid cylinders to be the stubby legs and scored and slipped them onto the bottom. Lastly, I formed a slab into a cone and attached the open end onto the back end of the dinosaur, cutting a hole where I attached it on. I molded the tail to curve and rest on the ground. I cut out a small circle and added a ball onto it to be the lid. Once it was bisqued, I glazed the entire thing forest green. Overall, I am proud of myself for pulling off this piece, albeit not super well. The body is too big for the tail and neck/head, so it looks a little strange, the head shape is off, and there is a hole that leads into the hollow handle so liquid can get trapped there. But all in all, I think it's sort of cute and borderline functional. I also dropped the lid and broke it 30 seconds after getting home from school, but I glued it back together.
For this project I tried to visualize the most organic shape I coud think of and I imagined a splatter, which reminded me of an egg, so I went with that. I started with, you guessed it!, a slab. I cut out a splatter-y fried egg shape out of the slab roller with a needle tool and smoothed over all the surfaces. Next I sketched out where I was going to put my yolk and then began to use a loop tool to carve out the slab. The end goal was a shallow dish where the edges are as thick as the original slab but the inside (barring the yolk) is carved a few milimeters deeper to have an indent. Once I carved out the whole inside I used water and a brush to smooth out the inside and round out/blend the yolk. Once my dish was bisqued I glazed the the whole thing white except for the yolk, which I glazed yellow. I am happy with how this turned out, I think it is very neat and simple and cute. I didn't realize that the organix shape project was supposed to be a sculpture, so I messed that up, but barring that oversight I like this project.
Choice Projects!
