Ceramics Project

The medium of my project is clay. The size of my project is 2.25 inches high and 10.25 inches in diameter. The design element stressed during the construction is the form I sculpted by hand. The technique used was a hump mold that the shape of the bowl was formed on, and rolled out the clay with a rolling pin. I carved my radial design into the clay while it was still drying to allow it to permanently form into the bowl. When the clay was fully dry I was able to paint certain parts of my design with red clay, and when that dried I was able to coat the whole bowl in gloss to give it a shiny appearance. My piece is very shallow and will not hold much, so it's function is simply decoration or as the centerpiece of a table. I created a design for my project by cutting a design out of paper and then holding that to my rolled out clay to cut. After it was cut it was placed onto the hump mold and created valleys where the clay was raised from the mold. The shape of my design was inspired by the idea of a flower by the way the edges resemble flowers and the drapery flows. The radial design is also circular to reflect the center of a flower that I colored with red clay to make it stand out. I learned from this project about how to work with clay and the importance of form in your artwork. I also learned that a radial design is any design that goes out from the center. If I were to repeat this project I would use a larger hump mold to allow for my bowl to hold more and have more purpose. I really enjoyed this project because it was fun to be able to sculpt art with your hands rather than draw it on paper, and it was nice to do something different.