Sgraffito Tile

Artist Statement

I started and finished this assignment quite late, but I did manage to do it. This is a clay tile upon which a pattern has been carved via the Sgraffito technique.

To make this, I rolled out a slab of clay, per Mr. Andreson's example. I then proceeded to use a variety of tools (needle, sgraffito knife thing, metal whatever-it's-called, etc) to scratch my chosen pattern into the surface of the tile. After it was bisque fired, I applied clear glaze so it'd look nicer.

I spent some time beforehand coming up with a good design. I had a really hard time making up my mind on what I wanted to do (otter, forest, more otters, beach, cat and otters, city taken over by otters, etc), so I decided to just do basic and random geometric shapes. Also, I make it purple–I like the color purple, and besides, why not do it?

I'm satisfied with how my Sgraffito tile came out. The geometric shapes look way better than I expected.