Sgraffito Slab

Artist Statement:

For this project, we were assigned to make a slab, and make a design to sgraffito onto the piece.

I wanted to originally make this slab have many small details within the design for the scraffito, make mountains, and have lines showing depth with the shapes. I decided to go with a more simple design because I felt that this would still be able to draw the eye. When getting my piece fired, another student's artwork dripped onto my slab in the process. At first, I was a little frustrated with the outcome but I honestly now think it adds character to it. It reminds me of one of those subway tile designs you may see in a kitchen.

For materials, I used sgraffito tools to carve into the piece. I waited until they were leather-hard so I could carve into them. For the glaze, I used royal blue, and this blue had a weird name. It was called "Neon Blue" which I thought was a really cool underglaze. I then realized I forgot to take a picture of the glazes I used, so when I went to finish my glaze a few days later, I grabbed the wrong blue. In the end, I do really like how the blues blend together so well with each other.