Here you can see in this unit I have experimented with a lot with different designs and techniques.
I started off with picking out an animal skull to work from, to create a sculpture as you can see in the first picture. I focused on the textures and patterns on the skull to create a visually interesting piece. From combining different parts of the skull together the final outcome doesn't look recognizable as an animal skull. When the sculpture was drying out I put it on top of a rolling pin as originally it was a flat plate of clay. From doing this it went into a more 3d sculpture and can stand up by itself.
When it came to putting it into the kiln I kept the colour of it fairly natural but decided to experiment in putting coloured bits of glass into the eye socket and a couple of other parts to draw attention to those areas of the sculpture. This worked fairly well when it came out.
After this I made a decorative flower bowl without using the pottery wheel. I did this by making a circular flat slab of clay then rolling it with a rigid/textured rolling pin. I then laid it into an actual bowl so it took to that shape. To make sure the clay wouldn't stick to the bowl I put cling film into the bowl to separate the two. I then created a ball to attach with slip into the middle along with thin squiggly sausage shapes. To create a wavy rim on the bowl I just pinched it in certain places. After putting it into the kiln the first time I put on glaze to finish it of the outcome is as shown on the 3rd photo.
I experimented with glass work(glass fusing) as shown above. This was just to experiment with a different technique. The finished results are photo 8.
Next we experimented with pottery and I made a relatively successful little pot.
Again experimenting with slabs of clay (in this instance terracotta) I poured white slip evenly on top of it so when in between drying I could engrave a pattern onto it. In this instance the all seeing eye surrounded by roses, I'm not quite sure why I did this design as I free styled it straight onto the slab. It turned out nicely either way and after the first round of being in the kiln I put on some glaze just to highlight the all seeing eye on it.
After this I started thinking about ideas for my final piece and decided to make a maquette. I'd decided to chose the organic theme and then progressed to make a garden sculpture of a mushroom. I thought about magic mushrooms and psychedelic imagery. My maquette was made in two parts, the cap and the base. I joined them together with slip when they had partially dried out, so it would be strong enough to stand and also so I could put the texture of the underneath of the cap on easier. After this I engraved plants and flowers onto the base to relate to the organic theme some more. Then I put black slip onto the cap and waited for that to partially dry so i could engrave onto that as well with symbols and a sunflower.
Final piece photos from this unit are to follow.
