Something New

Tuesday, March 22nd

     In the past, I have been using mainly acrylic paints and doing faces of people. I saw this as a trend and felt the need to switch things up a bit. However, in my actual art class we were assigned to do ANOTHER portrait. I know it's getting monotonous, but I was really pleased on how it turned out so I'll show you a picture. I tried to incorporate a unique color scheme for a little more variation. Here it is:)

     Despite my success in my comfort zone with acrylics, I decided to make something in three dimension rather than 2D. While trying to decide what to make, I looked at the shelf in my room which is home to three of my favorite little succulents. Looking at the cacti made me think : "What if I could make those look even more artsy?"

     Making a pot would kill 2 birds with one stone. I could make my room look nicer with a small, homemade accent piece and I could get more experience with clay. 

     

     The pot I began to make this week is not something that is thrown on the wheel. It is more of a rectangular box. I started out by cutting each side, but had to start over and make a template after the edges were uneven. This was a roadblock as well as the fact that the pieces became leather-hard after not working with them for a week. Leather-hard is term used to describe clay when it is dried out to the point of having only about 15% moisture. It is able to be reconstituted in water, but isn't as easy to cut. I know, I know, boring....but that's why I decided to start over.

     

     After re-rolling and re-cutting each side, I beveled the edges and stuck the pieces together. This is done by scoring the clay (making scratches in the surface) and using slip (VERY wet clay) as glue. 

     Here's the box I'm in the process of finishing with the edges scored (far right):

     After this, you reinforce the inside edges with a coil of clay. This was hard because my fingers were too fat to fit in the box without messing up the sides. :-(

      Coil reinforcement before blending:

     To make it more intriguing, I am putting little embellishments on the side:

The box isn't done yet, but it will hopefully be fired and glazed by the time of my next post!