Ceramics I

My idea was to have a beautiful rose-inspired pitcher that I could fill with water and real roses. I got the idea from a pattern I found that I eventually used to design the pitcher. I first wedged a big piece of claw and then put it through the slab roller. After that, it still wasn't flat enough so I rolled it out with a rolling pin some more. Then I placed the rose stencil over the top of the slab and went over it with the rolling pin again to get the design to stick. After that, I proceeded to grab a piece of paper that was used to make the side shape of the pitcher and then used a small cutting tool to cut out the designed slab. I then had to connect the two sides and smooth them together before I rolled out some more clay and placed the sides of the pitcher on the top of it. I cut out the bottom of the pitcher and attached it to the rest of it, before having it fired. Then I grabbed a red and a purple glaze and alternated glazing the pitcher those colors before having it fired and finished. This artwork doesn’t mean anything it's just meant to be something pretty to put even prettier things in. I want my audience just to enjoy its simplicity and admire it. The imagery of roses on the outside is the only symbolic thing about the pitcher. The most difficult part of this project was probably not accidentally flattening the outside design of the pitcher. As well as the fact, it got stolen for about 3 weeks and I had to reglaze the entire thing. If I could start over I would have just made sure the smooth parts are actually smooth not just bumpy. I’m not sure what style of art this pitcher is, but it's unique to me because I love roses. I love the color that the pitcher turned out the most about it.

My original idea was to have 4 separate ceramic works that all went together, an anatomically correct heart, a spoon, a fork, and a plate with a blood splatter in the middle where the heart would sit. I got the idea because I'm a big fan of Hannibal Lecter which leads me to often find beauty in things that most find creepy or disgusting. I only came up with the name later and thought it could give the whole project a deeper meaning. I wedged a chunk of clay and then pulled up a cartoon image of a realistic heart and began to carefully one by one sculpt the shapes and different intricate aspects of the heart. I then used a wet paintbrush and a sponge to smooth every aspect of the heart. I let it dry for a few days before scooping out the inside and letting it be fired. While it was being fired I sculpted a rough version of the spoon and set it aside to dry and started on the fork. I separated the prongs from the fork's handle when I made it. I grabbed the spoon again and used a small metal tool to carve out the spoon shape even more till I was happy with it, then repeated that with the fork parts. Those went into the kiln as I layered red and maroon colors onto the sandpapered heart. I then glazed the spoon and fork with a black and white glaze to get a grey color before glazing them again and then it was finished.  The artwork is symbolic in two different ways. One is my love for the beauty in gore which represents my interest in Hannibal Lecter. It also represents the phrase eat your heart out, and is a more realistic version of the phrase. I want my audience to think about the implications of the common saying and what it actually means. The most difficult part of this was the fork, I tried to at first attach the prongs to the fork before firing but they wouldn't stick and looked rough. So instead I separated them and then glued the pieces together with super glue after everything else was finished. If I could start over I would probably just stick to the original idea and have made the plate with the blood splatter because I feel it would just enhance the entire project even more. It's a mixture of realism and surreal art style I would say. It makes it unique to me because its showcases things im interested in. I love how beautiful and realistic the heart ended up, it was even better than I had originally envisioned. 

My idea was to create a flowerpot but make it in the shape of a skull so it could represent the beauty of decay and how it can bring new life like flowers or other plants that can be planted in it. I wedged a few different big chunks of clay separately and then combined them all together and got to work. I began trying to mold the giant chunk into a skull but also being able to maintain some balance to it so it wasn’t top-heavy. After that, I used my finger to push in the details of the nose and eyes of the skull. I then grabbed some leftover clay and added more clay to where the cheekbones and bones under the eyebrows would be and made the fae more sunken in. After that using a small metal tool I carved out the teeth of the skull and used a wet paintbrush to smooth out and retrieve the excess from the inside. I then wet a sponge and went over the entire skull with it to smooth it out. After that, I carved out the inside of the skull and left a hole on the bottom so that when watering the plant there would be a place for the water to exit. I went over the skull with a wet sponge once more before I left it to be fired. After I had sanded the fired Skull I went over the whole Skull with a white glaze 4 times. Using a grey glaze I went over the parts that would be more shadowy like underneath the cheekbones, around the eyes, and the teeth. Finally, I used a black for inside the eyes and nose hole before it was fired again and then promptly finished. This artwork is to show that even death isnt all bad and that there can be new life that stems from it. I want my audience to realize this and begin to view the world in a more optimistic way. The most difficult part for me was sculpting just the basic shape of the skull, I couldn't get it to stop being top-heavy but still look realistic. I eventually just added more clay to the back but still sculpted it so it looked like the back of a skull and propped it up while it was drying so it would stick. If I could change something I would probably add way more white glaze to the outside and make sure that the black glaze wouldn't bleed into the white making a weird green mark and erasing the black glaze entirely in the nose and eyes. This style of art is realistic. It makes it unique to my own personal style because I enjoy themes about death. I love how the face turned out, it kind of looks like it is melting which just adds to the whole creepy skull vibe.