Final Sgraffito Tile

Sgraffito Tile

Clay and Glaze

9 x 5 In

This is my final sgraffito project, created with clay. This project was inspired by a photo of my dog at the groomer with a green backdrop. I decided to take the outline of the dog and the green background and use those for this project. I added the sun and tree design around the dog to include more contrast of the white clay and the green underglaze. I wanted to play with perspective a bit so I exaggerated the way Emmy's legs were proportioned in the photo in order to make it look like she is facing out.

To create this project, as I said, I used a clay slab that was already rolled out. I then printed out the image of my dog and traced it onto tracing paper. Once I had my design on the tracing paper I taped it down over the clay slab and used a pencil to draw over the lines on the paper in order to make an indent on the clay. After I had this indent down and the clay dried out a bit I painted over the entire design with a coat of green underglaze. Once the underglaze dried a bit I did my carving and carved out the design I wanted. The final touch after the piece was fired was the clear glaze coat.

Unfortunately I didn't do enough coats of the underglaze over the entire project which resulted in some streaky patches on the piece but they aren't too noticeable in real life. I think the project could benefit from a little bit more white on it, but I was unsure if howelse to incorporate that.