Sgraffito Harpy

The subject of this sculpture is a harpy from Greek Mythology; harpies are half bird half woman. For this project we were allowed to choose any animal that we wanted to make a clay sculpture of, and this was what I chose. My sculpture began by me making two pinch pots. Between them, I put a coil to form the waist, and then I assembled them, forming the body/torso. I left a small hole at the top, which I used a small coil on top of, forming the neck. I then made another pinch pot that I turned into the head. I pressed into the face of the sculpture to make eye sockets, and made a small bird-like nose out of slab. I left a hole at the back of her skull because originally, I was going to have some sort of wire creature coming out of it, but when I was doing the sgraffito, it turned out to work as a whistle. Then I used slab to make wings for the sides of the body, and for the feet and claws. I didn't technically choose to make a harpy; my original plan was to make Echidna, the mother of all monsters (such as the manticore) in greek mythology. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out a way to make a functional giant snake tail, and I was running out of time, so I switched to an equally cool greek monster that I could still use the torso for.

I then moved on to the sgraffito. After painting on three coats of black underglaze, I began to scrape away at my sculpture. I alternated between just doing designs that I thought were cool and incorporating elements of myths about harpies into the sgraffito. On the wings and skull, I used circles and lines to make round, simple designs. On the front of the body, I made wind like designs. I did this because in mythology, harpies were sometimes described as wind-spirits, bringing storms and gusts and hiding within clouds. Within the wind I scraped a screaming/crying face because, in other myths, harpies would both carry souls to the underworld (the face is meant to the soul of a dead person. On the back I made the lines from the wings transition into mountains, which seven rivers are flowing out of, meant to the seven rivers of Hades (Hades as in the underworld, not the god).

The use of line and value are very present in this work. The lines create value, sometimes being closer or farther apart. I also made sure to include meaningful shapes when sculpting the form. The feet are small, but have big sharp claws that are meant to look intimidating. The wings are simple and symmetrical, folded in close to the body. The eyes sockets are big and empty, because even though the creature has a human face, I didn't want it to express anything but a foreboding indifference. There is a sense of unity between the designs on the face and wings, and the designs on the front and back of the torso.

I am very proud of this project. Not just of how the final project looks, but because completing this project was very challenging for me. It took me three class periods just to get the pinch pots for the torso right. After I was properly behind schedule, I then had to make the rest of the sculpture, which was hard because at that point my clay was leather-hard. By the time I was adding the feet, the bottom part of the torso was unalterably hard. Once I let it dry and was scraping it, three toes broke off, and then an entire foot did. Then, I was absent for two days in a week, missing time that other students would have had to work on it. Once I caught up with the sgraffito at home, I had trouble getting it not to chip (which I never really got the hang of... frustrating). Moving on, I wouldn't do a whole lot differently. The only complaint that I have is that the design of the wind is not how I wanted it to look. If there was a way to go back and redo that but nothing else, I would. Overall, this project was infuriating to complete. There were times where I was so at a loss about what to do next in the process that I was on the verge of tears. I powered through, and I'm proud of myself for doing so, and though there are still some feet to reattach, I appreciate my tiny bird-lady and all of the hard work she represents.