Unit 3 - October/November
Darted Cup
Progress Photos
Finished Piece
Firing Ticket
This cup turned out a lot better than I thought it would. My first attempt was too dry, so when I tried darting the piece, it cracked and I had to redo it. When I remade my piece, I made sure the clay was even more plastic and to keep the cup tall and wide, so there was room to take off clay if I needed to . Having it be more plastic made precise cuts to dart the piece more difficult, but I also didn't have to do as much to get it to stick together. The bottom had to have been the hardest part because it was an estimate of size and then when I tried to attach it, I almost collapsed the cup. Trying to smooth the inside was also difficult, but for the most part the inside his seamless. Glazing turned out fine, but for the second time my clear glaze ended up not fully coating my piece and instead leaving a gritty residue.
Coil Project and Slump Mold
Progress Photos
Tried combining my slump mold and coil piece together. This was my first progress photo after making it, but when I came back after letting it sit, it had cracked. After I put this one in the the slop bucket, I tried making a new coil slump piece, but when i started rolling the pieces, they cracked and broke. Then, I tried separating the projects and making a larger coil piece and a simple bowl slump mold. The coil piece fell flat overnight and the slump mold broke when i took it out of the mold. If I redid these in the future, I would make a coil piece around a bottle of something to keep the same of the object, and use more plastic clay to prevent cracks.
Sgraffito Carving
Progress Photos
Finished Piece
Firing Ticket
For this piece, I relied on the visual color I saw in the underglaze instead of the name. Because of this, my dark purple underglaze turned a lot darker than I had originally planned for. When letting my piece dry as greenware, I didn't put any weight down so my slab curled u at the edges and made an uneven surface in the end. I had some level of planning before beginning to carve my piece, but still ended up with extra space and not knowing what to do with it. I added a hole at the top of the piece so that it could potentially be hung, it chosen. This was made as a gift for my moms birthday and she appreciated it a lot. If i were to redo this piece, I would wait to paint it until after the clay had gotten bone dry. I would also have set out a better, to scale idea of how I wanted to carve my piece so that it didn't end up with empty space and spur of the moment carvings.
Monster
Progress Photos
Finished Piece
Firing Ticket
Tried to go with a more pastel theme for my monster while stil keeping the color scheme the kid drew. It ended up darker than I would've hoped but without much else that I was unhappy with. I created the body by making a large oval slab and carving out the center of it with a loop tool. I then cut out small rectangles that i rolled into cylinders for the antenna and arms. I added holes to the top of the antenna and curved them inwards because the drawing had added dots to the top. My biggest struggle was making the fingers for the hands. I used a carving tool to indent lines and separate fingers, but they were too small to round out, so I ended up relying heavily on glaze to round it out. The only detail that seemed to fade out was the loop carvings that made half teardrops like Yaretzi's drawing. My underglaze ended up filling in most of the carvings, and those that stayed visible were mostly filled my the clear glaze layer.