23. Sgraffito Clay Tile

Artist Statement:

This piece was an assignment for our overall art expedition that went on at the end of the year; a clay 'name template' that would also have some sort of focus around our concentration that we did this year. Following this criteria, I decided to create mine as a circular plate and have a snake placed on the plate with my name on the bottom. Starting off with my regular clay slab I rolled it out till it was flat before cutting it so that it was circular, then from their, I built up my main focus, the snake; my plate was then left out to dry before I could properly sgraffito it. After the plate dried I was then able to go back in, paint it, before scratching away said paint and creating my name and rock design in the background of my plate. Now firing the plate I then added a shiny paint layer after that before the plate was fired again; the last step and leaving me with a final product. My project didn't change much from what I had originally interpreted and what the final product turned out to be; the arrangement of the snake on the plate and the added rock background being the only differences from the final piece and what I had originally imagined. Overall I really like how it came out. The whole formatting, I think, is good and I like the different textures I was able to achieve with scratching on the clay.