Sgraffito

For this project, I was guided by the image of an eye that is melting. I chose this idea the guide my work because I love where there is out of place and separated human anatomy in artwork. I think that this kind of image goes really well with the black and white aesthetic of the sgraffito tile. The black and white really drove my concept because I wanted the design to be something that would be sort of dark because that style lends itself well to black and white. 

To create this artwork, I used a slab of clay, black underglaze, clear overglaze, and sgraffito tools. The sgraffito tools I used where, a loop tool, for carving away large chunks of material, and needle and ball tools to get clean and thin lines. 

I started this precess by rolling out a slab of clay and cunning it into the shape of a melting circle. I chose to make it in the shape of a melting circle because I wanted the image of the eyeball to feel connected to the thing its on, like its coming out of the frame. I wanted the medium and the artwork to work in harmony.  After this, I caoted the slab with underglaze and let it dry. I did this so that I could carve away the glaze to expose the white of the clay underneath. Once I had scratched my design into the slap, I fired it so the clay would harden and the glaze would set. I then applied a coat of glear overglaze to make the whole thing shiney.