Masterpiece - Nymphéas

Claude Monet was a French impressionistic artist who is mostly famous for his "Water Lilies" series. In the last 30 years of Monet's life, he mainly focused on painting water landscapes which mostly consisted of water lilies. Monet actually created around 250 water lily oil paintings. These pieces we all inspired by his property, were he planted and gardened water lilies and created a peaceful sanctuary.

Balance is a really good principle that is in Monet's water lily paintings, he made sure to spread out the plants evenly, without making them seem to symmetrical and unnatural. Rhythm is a clear principle throughout his pieces, with the repetition of the water lilies that are present in each painting of the series. Unity could also be a principle because it creates a sense of harmony and wholeness that wouldn't be there if the water lilies were missing in the paintings.

In my interpretation of Monet's Water Lilies, I did not take inspiration from just one of his paintings, I look at a few of them and tried to combine them into something in between. I took main elements that flowed through each of the pieces, such as the water lilies and the mostly blue toned water surrounding them,

Something I would try to improve on would be to add more colors into the piece. Monet's paintings were all very colorful and have tons of color mixing and I stayed more with the same few glazes and just created more of a basic blue water scene when I wish I added more color and made it just all more interesting.

Texture Project/Donation

This is my textural project which I also ended up donating for the fundraiser. I first rolled out a slab of clay and the pressed in the textural design into the slab. I then used a mold I found to create the general shape of the plate with the textured slab. For glazing I did a purple underglaze and then tried to use an opalescent glaze over it but I didn't do it right I guess.

Rhythm would be principle because of the repeated design on the plate itself. Balance could be another principle because if you were to cut the piece in half, the sides would be the same, I made sure that that the rim of the plate was even all around. Proportion could also be principle because the plate is all even and uneven.

When I saw the patten of the stamp, it reminded me of scales, which is where I got the idea to try and glaze it to be oceanic colors with blues, greens, and purples. Then I decided to try out the opalescent glaze on top of the oceanic colors but I think I added too much because the whole thing just turned out the color of the opalescent.

I am not too proud of this piece. I think the glazing is what really ruined the piece for me. I also added too many layers of glaze that it took away some of the texture I pressed into the clay, making it not very textured which was the whole point of this piece.

Culture Project

This is my culture piece. I used a mold in the form of a face to create the initial shape of this piece. After I got to pop the clay out of the mold, I went back and touched up parts of the piece that weren't looking too hot. For glazing I decided to keep it pretty simple and just do a nice line pattern in different simple colors.

Balance is a principle because I made the design on the face even on each sides with the yellow stripes on either side of the red stripe. Also proportion because the human face is generally mostly proportionate and I made sure that this mask was. There is unity in this piece because of the glazing, all the colors flow nicely together.

This piece was inspired by African masks. I wanted to try and depict the culture in a more simplified way. I used referenced of masks to create the design of the glazing. They generally used stripes, dots, and swirls on their masks and I really liked the stripes.

I am ok with this piece. I like how the glazing turned out and parts of the clay chipped off but I think it just makes the piece look antique. I would work on my construction for this piece, I think it could be a lot more nicer and sturdier.

Slab Project

This is my slab project that I created. I just decided to keep it simple and create a nice textured box but it sadly was destroyed before I could fully finish it. I started out by cutting out a simple square template out of paper and then using it to cut out five identical square pieces of clay. I then took a rolling stamp thingy that had flowers on it and rolled in the texture to four of the squares. I then just scored and slipped each of the sides together and to the bottom square base. It wasn't too long after that when I straight up dropped my box on the floor and it broke.

Rhythm would be a principle of design because of the repeated design of the flowers on all four sides of the box. Proportion would be another piece because each of the sides are proportionate to each other and fit together nicely. There is unity throughout the whole box because it is stuck together as a whole.

I just wanted to keep this project really clean cut and straight to the point. But I also didn't want the piece to be completely boring which is why I added the flower design in the sides. I am not too fond of working with bigger pieces of clay but it had to be bigger than our hand so that is why I just decided to keep the theme of a simple slab box.

I didn't really like the direction this piece was headed in to be honest. But I did plan to hopefully make this piece better with the glazing but I unfortunately never got to make it to that stage. That would be one thing I would like to change, actually finish the piece. Also even though I wanted it to be clean cut, it didn't really turn out clean cut which is something to work on.

Coil Project

This is my coil piece, it was inspired by my spirit animal, the snail. I first started out by cutting out a flat oval and then taking coils and sticking them around the oval first and then started to stack the coils up on each other. I think took a large coil and twisted it into the shell of the snail and the pinched the other side of the coil to create little tentacles. And then just to add some extra flare, I took little balls of clay and stuck them together to make flowers around the snail.

Unity could be a good principle for this piece, everything flows together nicely and doesn't look out of place. There is emphasis on the snail because it is the biggest part of the piece and it is also in the middle. Balance is another principle because it is very even, if you were to cut the piece in half, one side would not outweigh the other side.

The only meaning behind this piece would be that the snail is my spirit animal. I just thought it would look really cool if I could create a simple coil into an animal and I think it worked pretty well. The flowers were placed to make the piece more detailed and also to help secure the snail down to the base of the piece.

I think this piece turned out pretty well construction wise. Something I would change would be the glazing. I wish I did a more detailed glazing instead of just a plan and simple glazing. I also would of tried to make the coils a little more clean cut, they are just a little too crooked for my liking but I think for trying out coils for the first time, it turned out quite nicely.

Pinch Pot

This is my pinch pot, it was my first try at using clay. I decided to create a whale out of my pinch pot because I thought it'd be really cute to make a fat whale with little fins and I was correct, Timothy is freaking adorable. I started out by pinching a simple pot using my thumbs and then after that I proceeded to add on the tail and fins to the pot. His eyes and mouth were pretty hard to construct just because it was hard to get the eyes even and not completely flatten them while trying to get them to stick to the pot.

A principle of design could be movement because of the glazing, it makes your eyes wonder around the piece. Another principle could be balance, the tail is symmetrical in the middle and then the fins on each side help. Proportion could also be a principle because everything is evenly distributed and it stands up by itself.

There is no real reasoning behind this piece, I just wanted to create something cute and simple for my first attempt at clay. I really like whales for some reason, I find them magical and just aesthetically pleasing. I wanted to make something that I'd personally want to keep in my room and that's exactly what I did, he sits up on my shelf looking cute as ever.

Even though this piece is far from perfect, it's actually my favorite thing I have created all year so far. He's just so unique and different and really special to me. I could work on making the sides cleaner and also making the bottom flat, because he slightly tilts to the side when he's just sitting there.