Clay Sgraffito

The subject of my creation is three trees on a small piece of land with a yin yang in the background with the white part acting as a moon. This project was created by first cutting out a circle in a flat piece of clay, then waiting a long time for it to dry. After it was dry I put a black under glaze on it, and created a scratchboard design to figure out what I wanted to make. With this design I could begin scratching into the underglaze, with scratchboard tools, to reveal the white clay underneath. When all the scratching was done I put a clear glaze over it and had it fired. I chose to create this artwork because both sgraffito and the yin yang are black and white, along with the circle shape of the clay slab worked. To make it more interesting though I added trees in front, since in Global Studies we are learning about how the yin yang and nature are linked. The elements and principals that I used in the project were line, space, balance, and contrast. This artwork is composed centrally, fairly spread out over the whole piece.

The composition rules and techniques that I used in this were informal balance since it is heavily centered towards the left of the piece, as well as grouping since much of the design is located in the same area. My project evolved because as I was scratching away at the underglaze, it was chipping away a lot, so I had to give up on the little mandala designs and other details, so it was a much simpler in the end.

The meaning behind the artwork is that I enjoyed the outdoors and nature, so adding the trees and the idea of yin yang helped to incorporate this idea. This is also one of the ways that this artwork relates to my life. If I could redo this then I would make the coats of the underglaze lighter so that the project wouldn't chip as much, resulting in a more complex sgraffito design.