I didn't really like how my piece turned out. When I saw the pictures when researching I wanted more colors out of my piece. I didn't like how the acid stuff turned black. I mostly took my pictures from angles where you could see color and where it changed, the parts that you cant see is just black. I think this looks good with pieces that you do on the potter's wheel because those are nice shaped to work with and turn out good. I think my piece had to many jutting out parts that made it difficult to work with the burning materials and wrapping the tinfoil around. I also don't like the fact that the piece has to be pretty thick. I like working in small detail and this restricted me on that and I thought the pieces that were able to be made were pretty basic.I think looking at the pictures it is not that bad, but I don't really like how it looks in real life where there wasn't a color change and it's just black.
What is Pit Firing? This process is done typically in a hole in the ground, or a pit, pots are placed in the pit and burned. Pit firing is an atmospheric process all of the colors and patterns are derived from the process and what is consume in the fire. Items that are burned will turn to vapor and will swirl around the pieces in the pit. If the pieces are hot enough to have their pores open the colored vapor will enter the pore and stay there, if not pot will not have color besides black, gray, or white. Technique is special in the sense that it creates an almost "blotched" look and coloring to the pieces. What is a Foil Saggar?Through the same process as pit firing except the piece is covered in aluminium foil, like a potato, and put into the fire. The piece can be covered or materials can be put in with the tinfoil for different added effects. Special technique is that is creates a texture to the piece as the foil burns. Gives it a printed look/pattern. What is a Paper Saggar?Process is the same as the other firing but covering the piece in paper makes a different effect to the piece. This technique is special because it makes more lines on the piece as it burns and creates the lined pattern around the piece.
Overall I really like how this project turned out, I think it came out pretty much how i pictured it in my head before I started. When I first considered using aluminium foil I really liked the aspect of the reflectiveness that it could be but also how easy it was to work with. i first made a general body shape with newspaper and tape to then cover it with tin foil. I found that hot glue was the best way to glue it down, I didn't like how thick it could be stuck at, but I like how quick it was to harden and that I could easily take it off if I messed up. This came in handy when I was doing the mouth because I messed up a few times and i didn't have time to hold the teeth in place while I waited for it to dry. The only thing that I didn't necessarily like how it turned out was that when I pictured this project I wanted the tin foil to be more reflected and flat. The longer I worked on the project, the more crinkly it got and lost its reflectiveness that i wanted. The tinfoil also allowed me to draw on it. i used this ability for creating the darkness of the mouth and adding the details of the eyes and gills. I felt that i could have gone bigger with the project, but for how it turned out I really like it. Pinterest Board: https://www.pinterest.com/oliviachiar/sculpture/ For this project I had a lot of trouble thinking about what to do. I did a vessel in Art II and I found out that I didn't know what to make for that project also. I focused on my research from pinterest and choose to just go along with my piece and make unique shape instead of theme. I knew that I wanted to have the middle of the vessel rounded and I knew I was going to push down on the top and extend the middle. Then I came to the problem of that I didn't know what I wanted to design my piece as. My original design was to cut out diamonds for the entire thing but it ended up that they didn't line up so I had to free hand the ones I was going to cut out. Then I smoothed down my cuts and designed the triangles that I wasn't going to cut out. I really like how I cut into the vessel to do the very inside triangles on the top and bottom. The thing that I was really disappointed with was the glaze. I chose to glaze a very big piece and I think that was a bad idea. Its very hard and time consuming to paint something of that size with multiple layers and trying to remember where I had painted before. I originally was going to do acrylic but I couldn't make the correct color so I went with glaze. I don't really like how it turned out, The glaze was heavier in places than others and didn't turn out how I wanted to or as dark as I wanted. Pinterest Board: https://www.pinterest.com/oliviachiar/sculpture/ For the animal head project I created a duck. For the most part I like how this turned out. I think the video we watched before we started this project really helped me start the project and know how to succeed in making the head. One problem I fell into was when I just had the head and not the neck. When I added the neck i had to maintain the hollowness so I had to create a hole in the bottom of the head to align the neck. This ended up being very hard as I kept on having to add and take away clay and had trouble getting the head shaped. Even in the second picture I can notice how the head was kind of lumpy in the back and I had a hard time trying to fix it. A baby duck has very soft feathers that I knew was going to be a challenge with clay. The clay restricted me in achieving that 'soft' texture look. I felt that scratching directional lines into the head ended up working fine. Finally I glazed my piece. I think I achieved the colors that I wanted. I also learned that the glaze covered up the texture, which wasn't a problem, I just found it interesting and something good to know for future pieces and clay.
Mini LessonsClay Tile Cardboard Of the mini lessons which one was the hardest? Which was the easiest? Why? I think cardboard was the harder material to work with but it was my favorite piece out of the two. i really liked how it turned out got more out of the relief and layering with the cardboard. It was definitely harder to work with because it was hard to add detail to close to each other because it ripped easily. It also was hard to cut because it was easier to cut where their wasn't ridges. The clay is definitely easier to use and create what you want. I think for what it is, i am happy with my final clay tile but I thought creating the texture was hard to find one that looked good. I was definitely easier to create texture than creating texture with the cardboard. The clay is easier to add texture to because its not flimsy, it is more moldable and softer to then create better texture. Final PieceI Communicate Through My Work
For this project the theme was connecting man and nature. When I first started this project I knew that I wanted to focus on man interacting with nature in a mostly negative way. I didn't know what I wanted to focus on but I finally decided to go with an animal. I chose a hermit crab because I feel that is an animal that has to constantly deal with humans in their environments. The message is mostly that these animals end up having to work around us when it is us who are originally in their territory. I Solve Problems For the mini lessons I had sand involved with the turtle and I really liked how it turned out but I knew with clay I had more options to work with to create the texture. I went through several different ways of using texture but nothing really worked, or it ended up becoming too busy and taking away from the crab. I also really wanted to create a contrast with the foot print so I originally had the texture with the footprint but I ended up just making it smooth as if it pressed the sand down. In the end I had minimal sand texture with the project but I think it was spaced out enough to where it looked fine. I also had a problem working "inside" the shell of the crab and including small parts all while scoring and slipping those small parts. In the end it worked and went through the kiln fine and came out in one piece. I Reflect During this project I often stepped back to see how things were working together and if I was bringing my theme across. I wanted to make sure the spacing was right. I could of had the hermit crab on top of the footprint but I felt it was better the way i had it. Also when I came across the sand I had to think of the whole project and how the sand was effecting everything within the project. I also knew with the material i had to think of the future of how I was going to paint it. With this I then had to make sure the shell was smooth, while the contrasting sand would actually look like sand in the end. i still have to paint the project to finish it but I am overall happy with the end result.
What type of problems did you have and how did you overcome them?
This was my first time working with styrofoam and cutting into it was very hard. Using the xacto knives where very hard to use. Most of the time you couldn't make curved shapes and it was easier to do straight lines. So to solve this I focused my design with straight lined shapes. Another problem was that the cup was very hard to cut neatly, it often had rough cut marks. To solve this you really only had to go slower so you wouldn't rip the styrofoam. If you were to do this again, what would you change? If i were to do this again I would try to expand the cup out more and maybe go into more detail with the cup. I also like how with my peers some of their projects didn't look like a cup. So i would like to go in that direction and make it not so much cup-like. Jason deCaires Taylor is an artist that focuses on making underwater sculptures. He uses carefully researched environmentally-friendly materials to create his sculptures. This material actively promotes coral growth with inert Ph neutral properties designed to last hundreds of years. He puts his works in relatively shallow water to attract marine life but to also allow tourists to be able to dive to observe his work. His sculptures are designed to act as artificial reefs to increase coral and marine life while also diverting tourists away from the fragile natural reefs that are diminishing quickly around the world. His work is inspiring to me because I think it is really beautiful and a really unique idea. The fact that these sculptures have an environmentally conservative plan makes it really interesting to me. I like how he says that his sculptures are not done when they are put into the water, they are an ever growing project that changes as the sea life builds coral on it and changes the design. I am really fascinated with using nature in the sculptures while also benefiting the environment. I think the underwater element and the lighting underwater also adds another effect that makes the sculptures really interesting. Jason's Website: http://www.underwatersculpture.com/ |
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January 2016
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