Sculptural Concentration #3

For this part of my plant concentration I decided to create a jewelry dish. I decided to do this because I originally had idea to make earrings but then I realized that the only material that would really work to create the earrings out of is sculpey, and I don't make my best work out of sculpey. So I started brainstorming again and I thought of the idea of making a jewelry dish and it is similar to my originally idea, also because I like to use clay and I knew that would be a good material to use. I also had the experience with sgraffito before and I thought it would be a good idea to sgraffito the design on the dish.

The materials I used for this project was clay, scratching tools and a ceramics pot template. I started off by cutting off a slab of clay and then began to play with it a bit and then roll it out. To do this I used the roller in Mr. Andresons room, I layed out my piece of clay and used the rolling machine to roll over it. Once I was done with that, I grabbed a styrofoam template with a sort of small sized circle cut out as well as a cloth. I layed the cloth over the template followed by laying my slab of clay on top of it. After I picked up the template and cloth with my slab of clay on it and then continuously dropped it on to the table. By doing this, it causes the middle part of the slab to fall through to create a divot which makes the dish. After I got the dish to the way I wanted it, I let it dry over night to harden up a little. Later I came back in and covered it with blue underglaze. After I let the glaze dry with all three coats, I came in with scratching tools to sgraffito the dish and create the flower and vines.

Overall, I liked the way my project came out and I think it was a different idea from what I would usually go for. However, some things that I struggled with was when I was dropping the template on the table to make the clay fall in, It was hard to tell how deep it was. I also messed up when I was doing sgraffito because I felt like I was rushed and there are a few lines that went out of what I wanted but overall that, I am pleased with the finish product.