Scrafito Plate

Artist Statement

This is a clay tile that I glazed and then scratched away to make fish swimming in the sea. I made it by first rolling out the clay and cutting it into the circle I wanted it do be. Then I glazed it and fired it and then scratched off the glaze where I wanted the design to be. I chose to do the fish because I really love the way koi fish look, an i wanted to do a sort of yin-yang shape with them swimming, so I did.

I used value and balance in this piece. I used value in the shading, because I wasn't going to be adding any color, I had to shade by hatching and adding texture. I used balance to make sure the piece was even and intriguing to look at. I changed it by free-handing some bubbles and seaweed in the back of the piece

There isn't a meaning behind this piece, other than that I still really like drawing fish and think that they are rather elegant, so I wanted to use then because of that. It doesn't really relate to my life either. I think it could be stronger if I had been more careful when scratching away the glaze, because it got sort of blurred on some places because I didn't expect that much laze to come off.