Tile Design

Artist's Statement:

The assignment was to create a plaster mold which we would then use to create tiles with. There was required an element that meant that the tiles could be connected in different ways. I chose to do this through the use of flowers in the corners, and the different orientations you could put the bee in. I chose a bee because I wanted to do a honeycomb style of tiles, using a hexagon. Later I chose to glaze with celedons, to accentuate the texture and bumps of the bee, and get the full amount of detail. 

When carving my bee, I was very carful to have a balance of high spots and low spots, so that the glaze could pool and break in different places. I decided to glaze the tiles in a gradient, because I wanted to test of the different glazes. At the very beginning, I thought that I would have only part of the bee on the tile, and make it escher like, but in the end I decided against that, and decided to make it more centralized.

I wanted to make something homey, because I know that tiles can be used around the house, so I wanted to make somehting that would look good in a kitchen or bathroom. I am very happy with the overall result, although something different that I would have done is mix directly the gradient, instead of depending on premade colors. This would have made the gradient more even, which I think would make it more pleasing to the eye.