The assignment for this project was to research mask and find one that we liked. I found a mask that was of a a lizard opening his mouth and that sort of reminded me of a snake. I like King Cobras and so I went with the same idea of an opened mouth reptile and made a King Cobra. I made three total half pinch pots and used the first half to form a base. I then welded the other two together and put them on top of that base and cut out two holes, one on each side, for the eyes. After I had the basic form of the head completed, I added a coil of clay to that shape in the shape of the open mouth. I carved that coil into little triangles that looked like teeth and made four fang-like shapes for the major fangs of the snake. Also, one of the characteristics of the cobra is the hood that comes up along their necks, and so I added two ridges of clay to create this characteristic. After this product had been bisque fired, I used the SM-64 yellow glaze for the snakes teeth, the C-20 Cobalt glaze for the majority of its body, and PC-59 Deep Firebrick red to create blood on the teeth and red eyes.

I wanted the emphasis of this piece to be the open mouth and so looking at the snake head on, you can see only the open mouth. Pattern also played a big role in the final product as I carved scales on the front and sides of the snake and created my own patterns on the back. This project wasn't originally going to be a cobra but once I saw the open mouth and the fangs, I knew that I had to add the ridges on the sides to make it one. I also wasn't planning on adding the bottom fangs on the snake, but I thought that they would cool.

The major meaning of this piece is simply that I like snakes. I saw a picture that I liked of the lizard mask and thought of snakes immediately, so I went from there. I really like the way the huge mouth ended up looking in this piece. Sometimes it can be difficult to have a piece that is viewed from straight ahead, yet I think it worked well, both when you look at it from strait ahead or the sides. I struggled the most with maintaining the shape of the sphere and half sphere for the basic form of the snake. They wanted to mold into a less perfect shape and so it was hard to get them perfect. Also during firing, one of the ridges fell off, but I will be able to glue that on after the glaze firing. I think the project could be stronger with the ridges of the snake placed higher up on the neck and a more interesting pattern carved into the back of the snake head, but otherwise, I am happy with the way this mask turned out.