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.