fox figurine

This is a fox figurine wearing a kimono with a fan. This was my first time using terra cotta clay which I like better than the white clay because it is smoother to work with. I began with a cylinder shaped body and hollowed it out. I then shaped the face, hollowed it out and attached it to the body. I widened the bottom of the cylinder to give the look of the bottom of the kimono. For the sleeves I attached thick coils and shaped and smoothed them out to create a drooping sleeve effect. For the hair on his head I attached a ball of clay and made indents with a pin tool to give the impression of swirled hair. For the textured fur look on the face and hands I used a pin tool and scored the surface, then smoothed it out so it wouldn't be as harsh. I then added clay around the body and sleeves to create a rounder body and thicker sleeves.

venus of willendorf recreation

For this project I recreated the prehistoric figure, Venus of Willendorf. I began with a cylindrical piece of clay and molded it to the shape of her body, which dips at the sides and becomes much rounder at the hips. I hollowed out her head then took a ball of clay for the head and hollowed that as well. I then scored and slipped the head to the body. For the legs I took two more cylindrical pieces of clay and scored and slipped them before creating their rounded shape. I added two small balls of clay to each leg to create the knees. I continued to add clay to the hips, the stomach, and the shoulders to create a more rounded figure. For the pattern on her head I used a pin took to etch in the design. I still haven't been able to get her to stand which has been the trickiest part about making this figure.

Glaze used:

Chestnut brown matte 

tree tiles

For this project I worked with Sophia to create the tiles. We started with the main tile that has the base of tree. We used the rolling pin to flatten each slab then the pin tool and a ruler to cut out square and rectangular shaped slabs. Using the pin tools we engraved the tree and the decorations into the clay. We wanted each slab to be a different size and the slabs to be slightly off center when they matched up. The long rectangular slab with the small triangle will go beneath the tree to act as roots. The hardest part about engraving the tree and leaves into the clay is cleaning out the tiny pieces of clay that get stuck between the grooves. For the color scheme we plan to make the background a deep red, the dotted lines white, the tree a dark brown, and the leaves and birds blue, green, and yellow. 

Glazes used: 

Yellow

Raspberry 

Grape 

Victorian red

Fudge brown

Teddy bear brown

Chrome green

Turquoise

Burgundy

Orange