Sgraffito Tile

For this assignment, we were tasked to roll out a slab and carve/sgraffito a design onto the surface.

I rolled out the slab with just a rolling pin and then cut out the square shape using an Exacto knife. When thinking of a design, I was thinking about how satisfying it would be for me to carve it, while still being visually appealing. I knew that I wanted to underglaze this piece and I chose a color I thought would contrast nicely with the white that the clay was going to become after firing. I settled on this design and carved out the outside square first. I then marked the middle and started carving what I'm gonna call rays. I should have drawn out the rays first and also been more careful while I was carving but I tried to make them as even as possible. 

Once I was done carving I was frustrated with how careless I was and was just ready to get the project over with so I didn't quite wipe off all the small shavings which ended up staying on the tile all through the firing processes. Like I said earlier, I would love this piece if I had been more careful and drawn out the design first, something that I'll keep in mind for future projects. Overall I think this project was successful other than the aesthetics. The slab is a good width and very flat on top, and I carved it at the right stage of leather hard.