Clay Bird

During this project we were allowed to make either a bird or sea creature. I chose to do a bird call the black warbler which is a small, pudgy, black and white bird. For this we used clay to make our sculptures. I made a hollow ball for the body and one for the head. Then I attached those two with a layer of clay and added wings along with a beak. After the clay was dry was painted two layers of a black underglaze. This underglaze is matte and you are able to scrap it of and carve into the clay. This process is called sgraffito art. I carved random shapes and patterns into the underglaze on my bird. It was then fired in the kiln and I them painted a layer of clear glaze on it. One problem I had was that I put too much underglaze on my sculpture. This made pieces chip off as I was trying to create patterns and designs.