Sgraffito Tile

Artist Statement

I based my design off of the original shape of the clay instead of cutting it into a neater shape. I thought that an image of my bunny, Phoebe, lying down would fit well with the shape. I added some plants and flowers around Phoebe to fill the empty space left around her.

I started out with a flat piece of clay. Then I printed out a picture of Phoebe to trace onto tracing paper. I cut that paper into the shape of the clay and added some plants and flowers in the empty spaces. Then I placed it on top of the clay and went over the design so it would transfer onto the clay. After that, I painted three layers of black underglaze onto the clay. Once the underglaze dried, I could still faintly see the lines and I used a sharp tool to carve away the underglaze where the lines were. Then the clay was fired and I painted clear glaze on top of it to make it glossy.

I used pretty thin lines because I wanted the design to be simple with small details. This was kind of difficult because I think there was sand in the clay that would cause parts of the lines to be wider than I wanted. I cleaned those parts up the best I could and I think it turned out well. I wish that I has added another layer of underglaze because it's visibly thinner in some places and some white is showing through. I did some practice before making this piece by drawing Phoebe in my sketchbook to help me understand the picture I chose. I had to do some revision to the design because in between classes the clay shrunk slightly which left less room for the plants. I changed the design by getting rid of two plants I had drawn on the sides and slightly rearranging the ones that were left on the outside.