Tile Design Project

In Process Photos:

The assignment was to create a design that you like then made a prototype and then once we were satisfied with the tile we created a mold and then used that mold to make the tiles. When making the mold we used plaster. First I had to create a prototype which was then placed into a small wooden plank crate that we created and filled in the cracks so no clay would leak out when we poured the plaster in. When doing this I had to slowly take handfuls at a time to make sure there was no air bubbles. But then after I poured the plaster on top of the tile that was placed in the center of the plank structure. Once the plaster was dry I took out the tile and then the tile design was made. I created three layers and then used my designs to get the measurements correct for that prototype tile that was in the plaster. Then I carved out the two tops layers to create a flower pattern. When I put the four tiles together it creates a flower pattern. This project I made was based on a flower pattern and a bumble bee coloring on the base of the tile. The materials I used was the slab roller to make slabs and glazes including the following: marigold and black.

My project started out as just the intention of it being a flower with a plain white background. But slowly my tile evolved and I decided to make the background a bumble bee colored design so it would match the nature theme I've been having. So for this I obviously used marigold, which is a yellow, and black. I also added lines carved in the base tile so you could see the separation of each of the stripes. I also decided to leave the antique looking cracks in my tile that were made after taking it out of the mold instead of smoothing all the cracks out. I decided to do this because I like the look of the antique tiles. I also like how I decided to go with the nature theme, having the flower shape included among the tiles.

The meaning behind this work is just to enjoy the simplicity and natural beauty of nature. In nature so much of the beauty is overlapped. Where bees sit on flowers, animals laying in large beautiful tress and fish gracefully swimming in the water. So I decided to create a tile that capture multiple view and beauty of nature all at once, bee design and flower design. This is how my project relates to my life because I love nature. What I'm most proud of in this work is the bee design idea. At first it was a struggle to make sure the tiles looked smooth but eventually I grew to like the cracked antique look and I left it leaving an older nature feel to the tiles. Also, at the end we glued the tiles to a board. Hannah and I decided that our designs looked cool lined up together so we glued two of hers and two of mine together for both of our projects.