Parachute Installation

The parachute was made out of plaster on top of a balloon that acted as a form. After the plaster had dried, I cut it to have the shape of a parachute and painted it to my liking.
The process worked well and everyone seemed to do it the same way. The placement of the installation also worked really well even if it wasn't my first idea.
The overall installation of the project came out well.

Scraffito Tray

Scraffito is the art of drawing in the negative perspective or carving light out of the dark. We had to shape the tray, then use under-glaze and then putting a design into the piece. I believe I got the texture and design of wings well and my Chinese letter meaning eagle came out well. If I were to change this project, I would have switched the wings placement because they are backwards. This project taught me the scraffito process and how under-glaze works.

Wire Tree

This is my final project for this class and I am satisfied with my work. Although its looks more like a scary oak than a Bonsai tree, I am happy with the way it came out. It successfully resembles a tree and it looks very realistic.
The process was easy but painstaking. It began with separating each wire strand and then twisting them altogether. It is mainly grouping then separating wires to create the shape.

3 Bowls for Empty Bowl Project

My first bowl was the bowl in the middle. This one was made with pieces of fabric. I first cut the pieces, and then glued them to the form to create the bowl shape. This was a decent bowl, but definitely was not my best.
The bowl on the right was my second bowl. This is a pinch pot which means I started from a piece of clay, wedged the clay, and then used my thumbs on the inside to press the clay into a bowl shape.
The red bowl is the third bowl and this one was done on the wheel. It was my first success on the wheel and it was done on the kick wheel. The hardest part was centering the piece but after that I used my creative side to create the shape I wanted. This was my most successful bowl and the first one on the wheel. I thought the wheel was hard to begin wheel but I eventually got the hang of it and would try it again.

Clay Face Warm-Up

Illustration Friday - Wood

Unconventional Material Challenge

For this project, we had to work with a random given material. I don't know exactly what my material is but it seems to be tight copper coils.
I overcame this unconventional material in an unconventional way by doing my first abstract piece in sculpture. To fight against the tension in all the coils, I wrapped them together, twisted the ends, and used super glue. This all tamed the tough material.
The piece keeps the viewer's eye moving all around it and has contrast between the round coils and the tough straight, grounded screws that provide the foundation. The only thing I would change would be to make the glue less apparent.

Illustration Friday - Sparkle

Vessel Project

My inspiration photos are screenshots on my phone that will not add into this blog.

This piece can hold items which makes it fit into the category of vessel.

This piece turned out to be a success because the shape and details resemble those of a real bear.

I would have put more detail into the nose if I could because the flatness isn't like the round way that a real bear nose is like.

The idea came from my interest in bears but mainly a bear pattern that I saw and a pot that was the shape of a shark .

Pit Fire Part 2

I made this piece by a process called slab building. I rolled the clay out into flat pieces and cut them into identical sides. I slipped the sides together and then made a base. I let the piece dry out and then polished the sides.
Once the piece was bisqued, I painted the piece with red clay. After that dried, we prepped the pieces for the firing by putting flammable items onto the piece. I picked salt and pencils shavings.
This technique is so different from traditional firings because the outcome is unpredictable and really cool.
This was a successful piece and I would definitely do it again.

Pit Fire Part 1

A pit fire is a firing technique that fires pots with combustibles such as wood, leaves, metal oxides and salt.
Saggar firing is firing pottery in a confined space or isolated environment. A foil saggar would mean a saggar made out of aluminum foil.
These techniques are special because each piece will be unique and different. The isolated environment makes each piece come out with different colors and patterns.

I had only a few sketches for this project but they were all of coil pots which I drew before I decided to slab-build my piece.

Form Project

Mini-project with a magazine medium.

Relief Post: Part 2

This is my small tile project. This was the first mini project in the class and definitely helped me to learn some relief skills before embarking on my final relief project. I learned the necessary techniques and tools needed to make a clay relief project. My cardboard piece was a group piece and although seemed to come out successfully, did not help me to create my final project because it is a very different medium. 

Group Cardboard Relief project.

The picture on the left is my final project in progress. This was my clay piece once I had finished carving the piece. This was changed from the original because I wanted to have a rectangular piece but I decided on an ovalular piece because I thought it would add an interesting aspect to the piece. I found that I portrayed my original sketch well in this piece and I got good texture into the piece in the ground, trees, mountains and antlers. 

If I could change something it would be to fix the glazing paint. I found that painting with glaze and being able to mix colors very difficult. I also wish I could've added more detail to the elk. It is the main subject to the piece but seems somewhat dull.

I had to overcome the challenge of putting everything in perspective and painting with glaze which was pretty difficult for me. Getting the border even all around was also tough.

The final product came out awesome and I love the deep colors. I wish I hadn't added black to the mountains but I still like the outcome. 

Relief Post: Part 1

This is my plan for my relief project. My project will have a clearly defined background, middle ground and foreground and will feature an elk at the front. The mountains and the carved-out sky will be the foreground and the trees and the meadow will be the middle ground. I am not going to add any clay on top of what I carve out and this way it will be a true relief art piece. This will test my skills as an artist. My inspiration can be found at this link.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B5Qtea0ClYEfY1F1S0hRallGaDA
 

Inspired Artist

This art by Wang Ruilin caught my attention the most out of all of the art on the Colossal website. His depiction of different animals carrying the world on their backs has the effect of making the viewer uneasy of weary of the message this portrays. The creative aspect of these sculptures is also astonishing. The medium used seems to be ceramic but it is hard to tell and I cannot find any information regarding the specific medium.

  Wang Ruilin was born in Zhaoyuan, China and is a retired general from China's army. His art is often life size and he has many different "beasts" is his collection.