2. How has your knowledge and understanding of tools changed since the beginning of the semester? Talk about your growth of understanding. When I first started, I had very little understanding of tools. I’d experiment until I found something that worked. Since this semester, I’ve been able to get an idea of which tools would fix or add to a piece the best without having as much experimentation. I know what most tools were designed to do and how to apply that to my art. 3. What was your favorite material that you used this year? Why do you like working with it? I really loved working with glaze and underglaze. It really made me think about my detail work and break my art down into more simple color schemes. Both glazes kept me from overthinking my designs. Underglaze was really fun and pushed my art style more towards lines and detail work. 4. Which project was your least successful? Explain why you consider this work of art unsuccessful? If you were to create this project over, what changes would you make? My chameleon mosaic was probably my least successful piece. It was really messy and not well planned out. If I were to do it again, I’d cut down the size and really think about the composition. I’d also try and keep the piece itself cut up in a more organized way, with much cleaner lines. The glazing and materials were good but the pieces and design were poorly executed. 5. Regardless of whether a project was successful or not, describe the one where you learned, grew, or developed the most from? Please explain.
I learned the most from my tripod mug. It was a great introduction to clay and taught me a lot about using clay tools. A lot of the techniques and skills I learned while making that mug helped me in all my other clay projects. I learned how to wedge, slab roll, and mold clay. I learned how to use clay tools to create textures and surface designs most effectively. My tripod mug definitely taught me the most.
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My piece is a very small boy made for very small snacks. He has an even smaller leaf bowl for even smaller sauces or other very small snacks. The lifted rim around his belly makes sure you do not spill your small snacks everywhere.
I really really enjoy Studio Ghibli and Totoro is the perfect shape to be a plate. I promised God himself I’d only create pure and good pieces out of clay, so here is my one good clay piece. A good, plate shaped boy from a nice Japanese animated film franchise. I slab rolled a large slab of clay to cut out the shape of the body and ears. I score/slipped the ears onto the body, carved an indention into the stomach for the actual plate/tray area, and etched in the details of whiskers and eyes. The leaf was an oval-esque slab that I gently cupped and formed with my bare hands. Both pieces were bisque-fired, glazed, then glaze-fired. In paper mache you start with a base shape using any materials. You can then cover it with tinfoil (optional), before moving onto using newspaper. You cut the newspaper into strips and dip it into a mixture of either flour and water or glue and water. You’ll need multiple layers to keep the piece stable. You can then add a layer of paper towels to smooth out the surface. Add paint and exterior details over the paper towel layer.
My piece was successful in being the worst and most terrifying thing I’ve ever created with my own two hands. I wasted three weeks on that monster Ms. Sudkamp. Three weeks and so much of your flour and hot glue. The feathers and hair and layer application were so good but at what cost. The shape and base materials made it really difficult to cover with the paper mache. It was also really top heavy (because of its hideous, unsettling, terrible human head) which made it difficult to balance and stand up. (Which means he hangs like a dark bat-like specter from the flag if he falls forward.) My subject was a chameleon. I tried to design it so that a new piece started where the skin folded to show movement. The sketch really looked like a good, screaming chameleon, I promise.
It was really difficult to think about my art in separate pieces instead of one full work. It made it really hard to break it up in a way that made sense. Which means that the way I cut up the piece made no sense. I'm very bad at mosaic. I think the colors and design were successful but next time I’d be more careful about how and where I’m cutting my piece into tiles. Ms. Purtee wants me to become a mosaic artist now, which means I might be made to do this again. Pit fired ceramics are made, left to dry, bisque fired, then wrapped in a sagger. A sagger holds any material close to the piece, so that the material will burn on in the pit fire. When pieces are removed from the pit fire, they’re brushed off and covered in a sealer or wax. I think the shape and style of my piece was very successful. I’m really happy with how the elephant looks. I think next time I’d try to get more colors burned onto it and explore what materials can be used. I burned on salt, newspaper, and coffee grounds to my piece which produced lots of blacks, browns, and greys. To make my sgraffito piece, I rolled and cut five slabs of clay to score and slip a box. I waited until the clay was leather-hard then painted on three layers of black underglaze. Once the underglaze was dry, I used a small loop tool and a needle tool to carefully etch in my design. When my design was done, it was fired in the kiln. Then I covered it in clear glaze and fired it a second time.
I found the whole process to be very relaxed. I liked having the freedom of completely designing my piece and its design. Etching out my design was really fun and cathartic for me. I loved being able to add as many little details as I wanted. If I were to make this piece again, I'd definitely try and make something bigger that let me really work with my ideas. I think the box broke up my design a lot more than I was expecting. I'd also like to have cleaner lines in the future. I'd love to do this again. My sgraffito piece is a box; the four sides being a mouse, a fox eye, an open fox mouth, and claw marks. My piece was inspired by a comic drawn by Jessica Hayworth: I found the comic a few years ago and it's always stuck with me. I've always wanted to create something inspired by the art style and the story. I wanted my piece to focus on lots of small details.
I cut and rolled five slabs of clay on the slab roller. Then I scored and slipped the edges to fit the sides and base of the box together. I let the clay become leatherhard so that the box wouldn't collapse in. I added three layers of black underglaze. Once it dried, I began etching in the designs with a small loop tool and a needle tool. 1. I started by wire-cutting, wedging, and rolling the clay on the slab roller. After making sure there were no air bubbles, I cut a piece of paper to the size of the slab i wanted and used it as a template to cut away excess clay. I used a small loop tool to carve in the ginko leaves, and a needle tool to make the grid texture around the top edge of the mug. After I had added my design to the clay, I stood it on its edge and began to slowly curve the two short edges towards each other, keeping the clay wet to avoid cracking. I scored and slipped the edges, then blended in the seam so that it wasn't noticeable. After I had the cylinder shape, I carefully pushed the end into a triangle to form the three feet and scored where the clay met. I used more clay to cover any holes in the bottom. I then made a small rounded handle, scored and slipped it along the seam, and smoothed out any rough edges. After the mug was fired, I sanded down any sharp edges and added glaze so it could be fired again and finished.
2. I made a small, rounded handle out of a small slab of clay. 3. I think the ginko leaves and glaze colors were very successful. If I was remaking it, I'd make the original slab bigger so I could have a bigger mug and try and keep all sides even to avoid any leaning. 4. Clay Slab- a thick, flat plate, or slice, of clay. Joined to other slabs by scoring and slipping. Susanna Hesselberg was born in 1967 in Uppsala. She lives and works in Malmo, Sweden. She’s an “established international artist”. She’s represented in Paris, Copenhagen and Malmo. Hesselberg has had shows at The School Gallery, Paris (2008). Peter Lav Gallery, Copenhagen (2007). Centre Culture Suedois, Paris (2005 & 2004). Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art Centre & Tensta Konsthall (2009).
Most of Hesselberg’s work is in photography, though in 2015 at Sculpture by the Sea in Aarhus, Denmark, she installed a piece titled “When My Father Died It Was Like a Whole Library Had Burned Down”. The artwork references the lyrics from World Without End by Laurie Anderson. For me this piece is deeply moving; it feels like a physical manifestation of grief and mourning. I can feel this sense of losing something immense and irreplaceable in the illusion that the library is never-ending. Losing someone in any sense is hard and it can feel like you’ve lost entire worlds worth of things. Things they like, things they know, stories they tell, jokes they remember. This is such an accurate and moving depiction of grief and loss. The link for her website is marked as “could be hacked” and is not functioning. |
Olivia "Vi" Martin Archives
June 2018
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