Molds

I didn't take a picture of my mold when we did it because it was unsuccessful, and I didn't realize I would need a picture of it. I attempted to recreate the banana bowl, but when peeling the clay off of the bowl it all fell apart. If I had taken a picture it just would've been a picture of a big pile of pieces of clay, which is not very exciting. I think that the mold process is something that could end up being really cool for a piece, and it is something that I would be willing to try again in the future, but it definitely didn't work out for this project. I should've put something in between the bowl and the clay, but I didn't remember that step until I had already put the clay on the bowl. While the clay was on the bowl it looked like it was going to turn out really well, but the moment I started trying to take it off of the bowl it began falling apart. The mold process seemed to work well for other people, so it is definitely something that I would be willing to try again.

Vessel Mini Lesson (Pit Fired Piece)

To create my pit fired piece I started out with a clay base, and then made a coil of clay that slowly wrapped its way up forming the sides of the little container. I smoothed it out some so that the coil isn't quite as obvious. The container isn't very big, so I'm not sure what I will use it for yet. To prep it for the fire I took some of the copper and wrapped it around the top of the piece after it had been through everything that Mrs. Sudkamp had to do herself. Then I added a bunch of different kinds of leaves around my piece until I felt I had covered it enough. Lastly I wrapped it up in the tin foil. The finished product turned out pretty cool, and I really like how you can see where the copper burned away on my piece. I thought that this style of work was very unique and different, and it is something I would be willing to do again. I am debating using it for my main vessel project, but I am not sure that pit fired is the look I am going for with that piece. Either way I really like this method and the final product it creates.

Relief Main Piece

To make my piece I used techniques I learned from the cardboard mini project to create a Captain America shield. At first I wanted to make it look old and rustic, to represent Captain America before he got frozen in a block of ice, but water color didn't look too good on the cardboard. It just soaked into the cardboard and ended up looking more like mold then old paint. After trying the water color I decided I would use acrylic paint to represent the new Captain America with his new outfit and nicer looking shield. I thought my piece was successful because I ended up getting the shape and the colors of each section of the shield right. Also I think the size of the shield is fairly realistic. Next time I would try to find some way to make my circles a little more precise because they aren't totally perfect. Also I would find a way to better center all of the circles to make sure that the circles all line up in the middle. I decided to make this shield because I love Marvel movies, and Captain America is my favorite Marvel superhero. I have a few shirts with him on it, and I thought it would be really cool if I could make his shield.

Mini Projects- Relief

Clay Relief:

This is my clay relief tile. I think that this is probably Mr. Sands' favorite relief project that I did because it is a Zonkey. I think that it turned out really well and I am proud of my effort to make his favorite animal (or at least I am assuming that this is his favorite). The one thing that I found challenging was getting the clay out in the tight spaces, like around his nose and whatever you wanna call the two squares at the top, otherwise I thought this one was fairly easy. This one is probably my favorite of the mini projects because I feel like it is the one I worked the hardest on.

Cardboard Relief:

This is my cardboard relief tile. It is supposed to be a panda if you can't tell, and this is another one I am very proud of just because I think it turned out to be much better than I expected. The only thing that I found challenging about this was making sure I was only cutting through and peeling off the layers that I wanted to take off. The only thing that I wish could have turned out a little better was the panda's mouth. I ended up just making it a straight line, but I feel like it isn't noticeable enough.

Paper Relief:

This my paper relief (sorry that the picture didn't turn out very good, I was in a hurry to get it since class was almost over). This one is my least favorite because I didn't like working with the paper. It doesn't have layers that I could carve out or peel away like with the cardboard or clay, so it was harder for me to come up with what to do for this one. I would say that this is definitely abstract, and it turned out sort of how I envisioned it would.

Inspired Artist

My inspired artist is Calvin Nicholls and he lives in Ontario. He works with an interesting material, paper, and he does relief art like we have been doing in class. His relief is of a much higher level though and one thing that I really love about his work is the attention to detail. He seems to typically do animals and if they have fur he really manages to make it look realistic. Also he adds little details that make the piece even more interesting than it was in the beginning. One piece that is a good example of this is the dog that I have shown above. The detail that can be hard to notice is the outline of the cat in the dogs eye. I found that very neat how he could hide something like that and the moment I noticed it the cat became completely obvious. This made me feel like I should have noticed the cat at the very beginning. Here is a link to his webiste: Calvin Nicholls. I am positive that his paper relief is way better than my attempt of it in class.