Soft Slab Construction

This assignment was to create two mugs and two platters with soft slabs. The subject of my creation is mostly nature. In almost all of my artwork I place in some sort of nature related theme. I made my mugs by first flattening out a large piece of clay. Then I got a can and I cut and measured the clay into a rectangle that would fit around the can. Then I carved designs into my mugs using letters and a sharp, thin tool. After I put the slab of clay into a cylinder shape and slipped it on the base I made handles for the mug. I didn't put a handle on my second mug because I wanted it to be more of a cup for utensils. Then I made two platters. I did this by carving into a piece of styrofoam. I made one the shape of a mushroom/star/flower. And I made the other platter into a leaf shape. I did this by placing a thin slab of clay over the foam shape and dropping it a few times on the table so the clay would take the shape of the foam cutout. Then I carved into the platters. Later I glazed the leaf platter into different types of greens which took some time but it was worth it.

I chose to create this specific artwork because all of these pieces are unique but simple. They portray the simplicity and beauty that nature typically has. How my project evolved was at first none of my pieces were smooth and rather rough. So I went back and smoothed out each piece. I revised my artwork by fixing the shape of the mugs at the top so they would't be rough on peoples mouths. And with the platters I just made sure I had at least three layers of glaze.

The meaning behind my artwork is like I mentioned before, the simplicity and beauty that nature typically has. How my artwork relates to my life is I love nature if you couldn't tell already. What I'm most proud of in my artwork is how quickly I made each piece and it all came out the way I wanted it to. I struggled with choosing the correct glazes for each piece. But I overcome these struggles by thinking about what color relates or best fits my artwork. My artwork could be stronger if I used a different dark green glaze on the leaf platter. This is because I did 4 layers of glaze and it still didn't come out as pigmented as I would've liked it to.