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Required Questions:

1.) Tools are a major focus in this class.  Though many things can be completed by hand tools are often necessary. In creating artwork what type of tools have you used?  In using these tools how did they help your work along? Explain their function and purpose. (Ex. Pottery Wheel, aviation snips, Clay rib)

My most used tools would honestly be the hot glue gun, and a sponge. The hot glue gun is for just as it seems; to hot glue stuff together. I ended up using this often in order to create texture, and glue things together, but still have the ability to make it malleable. The sponge is really used for anything! I used mine most for smoothing clay out. I really really hate a rough texture, and the sponge was really useful in smoothing it out without giving me the ability to mess it up and cut it like many smoothing tools do.

2.)How has your knowledge and understanding of tools changed since the beginning of the semester? Talk about your growth of understanding.

My general knowledge of the tools didn't change, but I definetely began to understand that they don't have to be used for exactly what you think. Hot glue stopped becoming just a means of getting something to stick to something else, but something I can move around to build a piece and form it instead of just layering paper.

What was your favorite material that you used this year? Why do you like working with it?

 PAPER MACHE! I really enjoyed working with it because frankly, it was fun (I mean it looked like pancake batter come on). Also though it was awesome to be able to really wrap the newspaper around the structure and be able to mold it. I enjoyed making my first hand but it was so hard to fit the maps in the crevices of the hand, but the newspaper was really able to lay the same way my structure did. I just felt that there was a lot less room for error, so I was able to enjoy it more instead of being so frustrated.

Which project was your most successful? Describe the theme and or topic and the process you went through to complete the project.

My best piece was definitely my unconventional material piece (that was the theme). I first rolled out a slab of clay and then traced my hand. After the hand was traced and cut I curved the fingers up and the palm a bit so it looked somewhat like a hand holding something. After that I just cut out strips of maps and glued them on; making sure to put strips of bright colors on the tips of each finger. I say this is my best purely because I put so much effort into it, and it turned out how I imagined.

What did you find most difficult about this class? This could be anything from gathering materials, to generating projects ideas, to applying a particular technique. What could be done to resolve this issue in the future?

Good god. Getting a flipping slab of clay makes me break out in hives. Really any aspect that counts as "prep" or "getting materials" is just the worst. I feel like this is definitely just a me thing, but I was never able to understand how to plan it well enough so I wasn't struggling later on in the project because of my poor prep. I guess what could have been resolved is to go over prep, as in how to roll a slab of clay big enough for a bowl.

paper Mache

1. How was your piece successful? I think the general shape was really successful, it wasn't perfect or too realistic but I think it definetely got the point across which I was really proud of. 
2. What difficulties did you have with it?  Was it the shape? Medium? Layers? I had the most difficulty with the layers around certain crevises, but once I figured out how to mold the paper more, it was a lot easier. I also struggled with the painting because certain colors were more opaque than others and that was driving me bonkers.
3. Did you finish it? Why or why not? why yessiree I did finish! I finished because I was FEELING IT and got the hang of the process pretty fast. Plus if I had done it pretty fast, I wasn't gonna waste it, I was gonna paint that dang thing. 
4. 
   

Scrafitiosis

1. ​Explain the process? The general process of this is to make a piece, and then once 'leather hard', cover it in this black goop. Once the black goop dries, go in with an object of your desired size and etch into the piece. Etching into the piece will scratch out the black goop so you can see the underlying color(either white clay or red). Then put it in the kiln, take it out, dip it in that rank smelling glaze, and put it back in the kiln. 
2. What did you think of the sgraffito process? I thought it was pretty cool. I really really hate dry clay and the sound/feeling of it, so scratching at it and such kind of urked me, but the idea of it and outcome was really cool. I also thought it was really cool and interesting how you had to think of which shadows and shading would be the underneath or the black. 
3. How was your pieces successful and how might you change it if you were to do it again? I thought my piece was pretty swell. I think the design was really cool and turned out kind of messy which is what I wanted. If I were to do  it again I would have wanted to make sure the original piece was made better (i.e smoother, more even, etc) and that I would have focused more on putting an even glaze on everything.

 

Tray set

1. What is your tray set used for?  How does your design make it used for that? Our set was used for kind of like a dip vibe. The design worked perfectly because the biggest bowl is used for chips and then the rest of the smaller bowls are used for various dips; you can place the less cool dips in the small bowl and the tastier dips in the medium bowl.
2. How did you come up with your idea?  We saw the cool curvy bowl and decided we wanted to do that, and I frickin love dips. 
3. Explain your process and materials. (3 or more sentences) We first rolled our a slab of clay. Once we rolled it out, we'd cover the bowl in some sort of protectant and then placed the clay over it so we could make it form to the bowl. After about a day of drying we popped it out, and we'd smooth it all down and make it  a bit smoother. After that the pattern was added, put in the kiln, then glazed with just a clear coat because we liked the red clay, and put back in the kiln. Then wala! All done. 

20 scrafeetiosis pieces

Tape Shoes

​​Explain the process start to finish.  WELL first we have to sketch out the break up of the shoe  and figure out how the shoe                                                                 pieces together. Then you have to cut out the structure pieces from note cards and then                                                                 wrap it all in tape, and then tape it together with tape also. It depends on what shoe you're                                                             doing also, like shoe laces and buckles.  What do you find successful about your piece?  I think the bed of the shoe was really realistic. The part where birks curve up                                                                                   rather than just a flat base is kind of unique and I thought, not to brag, I kind of                                                                               killed it. What would you change?  How was it unsuccessful?  I would  probably change the buckles to make them a little more realistic and I think  the most unsuccessful aspect was the whole tape factor. I used tape obviously,  but I kind of missed out on the whole make it look                                                                                               completely out of tape; you can still see the lines of the note card which is                                                                                      a shame. (I can't crop this picture on this website, and I deleted them off my phone to make room for the other pictures! I'm so sorry I should have tried this earlier today so I could have asked you!)

Unconventional materials

What material did you have?               

  Maps

What made it hard to work with?         

  It was really hard to bend and mold around                                                                               curves.

What did you make and and why?       

 I made a hand grasping up, covered in the map. I made it because I wanted to make a connection to human rights in some way, and I find a lot of symbols for that are hand related. I wanted to make a hand open though instead of a fist so it could be like "holding the hand in the palm of your hand" or like how it's the people's job to hold the world and take care of it. 

How is your piece successful? ​            

  I think the shape of the hand turned out well and the colors I used were really well.

 The block colors on the tips of the fingers I think                                                                  really made it look more artistic rather than crafty and I really liked that. 

Pit Fire

1. Explain the process of pit fired ceramics and saggars.  Should be at least 3 sentences or more (20pts)

First you have to make a sketch and choose what technique you'll use to make it. After that, and once you make it, you have to fire it in the kiln. Prior to the firing you have to make sure that you smooth it out best you can (using a spoon). After the firing, fix anything by sanding it, and then begin the actual pit fire. Wrap your piece in flammable items and drizzle chemicals all throughout it, then place the pieces in a pit and light it on fire. Hopefully the flame doesn't blow up and destroy your piece, but ya know, sometime fires are LIT.

1. How do you feel your piece was successful and how might you change it if you were to make it again? (20pts)

No I feel like my piece failed terribly. However, I thought the structure of the piece was good, I'm proud how it turned out because it was pretty challenging for me. Though I worked hard on the actual piece, I think I could have improved on the integrity; the scratch and slip wasn't that good which is what probably added to the incredible break in the piece. 

Learning Techniques

What technique do you think you'll use for your pit fire piece?

I'll probably use slab. Though I think coil would actually end up being easier since I feel like you can have more mistakes and still be able to fix it, slab will end up looking more like what I hope for than coil. (pinch is irrelevant) 

Who did what in the group?  How was the work divided?

Mark and I were a "group". I did the directions and writing, and Mark did the pictures. 

Relief

1. I think what was most successful pertaining to the cardboard piece was the ability to add the layers and dimension, and pairing that with such little paint to still make something that isn't realistic but "detailed". I think the tile piece low key looks gross BUT what was most successful was the fact that since this has really been my first sculpture in years, I was able to add all the elements needed (texture, glaze, glass, relief) with little to no hiccups in the process; so though it looks bad, the actual process was not.

2. I probably would have changed the theme of the tile piece. I still like what I was going for but at my skill level and the size that we were working with, it wasn't realistic for myself to create what I was hoping for. A theme like space or something to do with rain is more my wheelhouse and has more interest to me. 

3. My subject for the cardboard was the ocean. I chose this because I figured it would be easy to include the layering and different textures since the actual ocean itself has so many different levels. Also one of my favourite art pieces is "The Great Wave off Kanagawa " so it was something I really like in art works and have seen often. For the tile piece I was going for the abstract vibe; the ocean, ground, and sun. I was hoping it would bring together multiple parts of nature and kind of the view of the sunrise near the ocean. I chose that because when someone says nature it's kind of the first thing I think of, so I went with it. 

Inspired Artist Post (Feb 1)

   My chosen artist is Dustin Yellin ( http://dustinyellin.com/ ). He's currently 41 years of age and lives in Brooklyn, NY. So his artworks are generally a little tricky to describe, but basically he works in glass. He tends to build on the idea of layering, to create a 3D sculpture, but it'll emerge with often an incredibly amount of detail since each layer has some sort of image on it. He grew up in Colorado, but didn't feel that school was doing much good, so veered off the normal path. He studied for a year with a physics teacher; this surrounded him with the scientific approaches on matters and generally eccentric stuff (that's code word for hallucinogens).
   Alrighty, so to be completely honest I chose him because it was one of the first pictures that popped up that seemed cool. Now for me, for art to really be cool it has to fit my 'cool art checklist'. This means the following: would I not question why it's in an art museum? would I actually stop and look at it or would I slowly walk past nodding because I feel like people will think I'm ill-cultured if I don't pretend I'm interested? If this showed up on my pinterest board, would I re-pin it? Well his sculptures check these all off (I'm gonna look him up on pinterest after this assignment in fact). I think what really got me to stop scrolling was that I had to stop. His pieces are so incredibly detailed and are multiple art works in one; you have to really look at it to get the whole picture. Also, after I decided he's the guy for me, I found out he did a piece for the New York City Ballet, which is my wheel house. So to sum this up: I could justify why he's famous, I love things that can always show you something you hadn't seen before, and he did something ballet oriented so of course I love it.

Texture

                         Cloud:

What was hardest about the cloud texture was making it look soft and fluffy. I normally would rely more on the coloring aspect of an art form to shape it (ha pun intended) into what I want, but making it resemble a cloud when it's grey and dense purely from texture was pretty tough.














                          Rock:

What was hardest about the rock texture what getting some parts of it really rough looking but also really smooth and curvy. It was hard to do with the clay and really separate the two looks without it turning into more of a blob feel.













                        Fur:

Obviously I struggled the most with the fur. I just had a generally tough time. I don't really have a good grasp on how to physically mimic fur and things like hair; fine (lol another pun like fine hair) and detailed things. Also what was weird about this one was the angle that we were trying to create; looking from a birds eye view was throwing me off even more than it would have if I were to just recreate the look of fur.