Concentration #4

The assignment was to continue with our concentrations. The subject of my creation is a set of clay Russian matryoshka dolls designed like chickens. First, I made the big chicken that would hold the rest. I made an oval shaped figure, making sure it was hollow. Then I cut it in half, hollowed it out, and then smoothed the rest of the clay. I then made the rest of the shapes, making sure there was a lot of room in each for the next one. The last figure was an egg.

I used shape to make sure that each chicken would fit into the next. I used unity in the color selection; I tried to pick colors that work well together, such as green and blue. I used balance in how much pattern I decided to do; I didn't want it to overpower the project. I was going to make a bigger "holding" form and then make more little chickens inside, but I realized it was a lot more complicated then I thought it was to make the forms and make them all fit inside with each other.

I was adopted from Russian, so I thought it would be interesting to make matryoshka dolls, which are traditionally from Russia. I had a small collection of matryoshka dolls, many of them actually coming from Russia. I'm proudest of of how the holding hen came out; there's a good amount of detail, especially with the black swan on the front. I also am proud of how I got them to fit inside each other. I struggled with this at first, but then figured out if I made the heads a little shorter and carved out more space inside it's holder, it would fit. If I could fix something about this project, I would smooth the outside of each hen, and not just the inside. You can see and feel all the little dents and scratches on the outside, which I don't really like.