Sgraffito

Artist Statement: In this unit we focused on designing and creating Sgraffito tiles which are clay tiles with detailed designs on them. The design that I wanted to make was something that would repeat. When I saw that there was blue underglaze I decided that I would do a fish design because It might look like something in the ocean. The tile had to be 50/50 in terms of the amount of white and the amount of color so among the fish I had to add many little squares and lines to keep the repeating pattern while also ensuring that most of the space on the tile was activated. To make this Sgraffito work we first had to roll out the clay and make it flat, after that we carved the clay using carving knives, small blades with curves on them, then the tile had to be painted with underglaze to retain a color. After three coats of blue underglaze were painted on, a few layers of pink glaze needed to be painted on, the glaze later dries clear and the tile is done. During the carving process we had to look back and forth to our scratchboard plan and make sure that we were matching the designs. During certain. parts of the process I would realize that there was too little white and too much color so I had to carve more . During the whole process we had to be very meticulous about things to keep the design right and even. Overall, this project was very interesting and it was fun to learn a new type of art!