Ceramic Bust

For this project our goal was to create a clay bust with a conceptual element. I chose to do Frida Kahlo because I feel as though she’s a great model being a female artist. Her works plays into the pain she was left with after a bus incident.

First we had to learn how to create a bust. We took a ball of clay the size of a grapefruit, split in half and create two bowls”. We then used “scratch, scratch, water, attach” to attach the two bowls together, stuffing the middle with paper towels. We constructed the neck from a slab filled with newspaper and attached it to the head. We created shoulders from slabs and coils. Next came the facial features. I used a coil and attached it in the very center of the face. By pushing clay in and out, I was able to create the nose, lips, and chin. The features were hard because you had to keep fearing back to your terence picture to get it right. The eyes I struggled with the most. I made an indent for the pupils and eyelids and then I added clay for the eyelids and iris. For the ears I rolled out a slab of clay and made a heart, I cut the heart in half and looked at my reference picture to get the shape right. I rolled out three coils and made a braid for Frida Kahlo. She is always seen in pictures with her hair up in a braided bun with flowers. I created vines around her shoulders to represent her pain. I left her heard open with plans to fill it with flowers for her flower crown. I used real flowers because I thought that when they die they could symbolize her pain.

After it was fired, I used black oil pastel to color the hair to make texture. I went over this with black ink. I then colored her shirt orange using watercolor. I chose orange because it would pop and create contrast between the vines. And used watercolor to color her face and the vines. I used wire to create flowers. I used wire because wire sticks is sharp and painful representing her life.

This was the hardest project I have ever done. It took a lot of patience. It didn’t turn out exactly how I wanted it to but I think that the ideas are all there.