Natalie Blake, Tiles, Tree.

Natalie Blake, Tiles, Tree.

Natalie Blake is a ceramic sgraffito artist that has done many different tiles based on nature; like the ones above. These are the ones that stand out the most to me. She’s helped bring the image to life by distorting the clay. Placing different size and shaped molds under the clay did this. She uses a spray-painting gun to apply the slip to carve through it. This is done because it gives an even and smooth finish without leaving brush marks, it’s also used to blend two colours together. She puts a lot of thought in to the colours that she uses, from what I can see she uses the colours that represent the different times of year. 

Coil Built Vase.

Coil Built Vase.

I thought of the shape by wanting to do something original and slightly weird, I had seen things similar to this but nothing like this. I wanted something smooth that your eyes ran along it with ease. I didn’t want to give it a neck or just leave it open so I came up with the idea of putting a flat top on it and making an opening. I think this was a good idea as it gives a neat and crisp finish. I spent a lot of time considering how tall it would be and how drastic the edges were going to move out from the base. I made the pattern by doing sgraffito on one side and then painting the decorating slip on the other. I chose to do a line pattern because it shows the shape; it does this because the pattern is on a panel straight through the center of the vase. I am now waiting for it to dry and be fired. I am very happy with the way it looks now. I think it needed the pattern to compliment shape.

Making Process.

I had to choose the right die for the extruder, I wanted mid size coils so I went for a die with two holes. I made the base by rolling a coil tight to the size and shape I wanted and knitted them together on the top and bottom I then smoothed it off on both sides so that it was smooth and flat. I then added another coil to start building, I scored and put a small amount of water on the base where I wanted to put the coil. After placing the coil on the base I knit them together but before smoothing off the inside I fed a piece of clay to the join to give the vase stability. I added three of four more coils before I smoothed the edges. As I used the kidney to smooth the edges I put my hand on the other side of the piece of clay to take the pressure of my smoothing it; this stopped my clay from distorting or stretching.

Plaster Press Mold.

Plaster Press Mold.

I think my plaster press mold came out good because of the way I filled it down at the end, I left some of the colour from the clay on the mold so that it would show a more three dimensional effect. One of my pieces went off the edge but I think it looks good with the piece, it shows that I had a lot of objects.

Ceramic Sgraffito Bowl / Plate. Tinky Winky.

Ceramic Sgraffito Bowl / Plate.Tinky Winky.

This is a Sgraffito bowl using white clay and red slip. I thought I would keep to the theme of Tinky Winky as I have with my other pieces. I used manganese oxide and transparent glaze to give a slight purple effect. For the text I looked at different fonts on word to find the one I liked most. I think my bowl/plate came out good, the only problem is that over the drying and firing period my bowl began to crack and has split in the last firing. I am not unhappy with this because I think the quality of the bowl overpowers the look of the split.