Duality

For this project I had to create a piece of work that showed two opposite forces. I chose life and death in the form of a vase. I made the vase using the coil method which is to take long, thin pieces of clay and stack them until the desired shape is achieved. That was a long process because I had never done it before and it was a struggle to get it smooth. Then I had to create all those tiny flowers which took me even longer to do. I made them by cutting out the shape of a flower on a very thin slab of clay and then bending the petals up. After attacking it to the pot I would press a littler circle of clay into the center of each one. That was the life aspect of my vase. For the death part I chose to sgraffito several skeletons into it. It somewhat accidentally became a dinosaur/ fossil theme. Those were the images that were easiest to find. That process didn't take me quite as long.

As far as glazing this piece went I applied almost all of the glaze before it was fired. All of thee glaze is underglaze with a coat of clear on the top. I had to put the green glaze on when the clay was still wet so I could scratch it off to shows the skeletons. Immediately after the sgraffito aspect was done the pot was fired. The flowers were very delicate and some of them broke off while I was working on it. I reattached them and fired ut so they wouldn't break anymore. Then, I glazed them and put clear over the whole thing. Looking back I wish I hadn't put the clear on because it muted the colors a lot. However, I think it is still pretty and considering how much work I put into it I think I did a good job replicating my vision.