First project: man-made vs. natural

To get us warmed up for this MA we are set a few introductory project. The first one, leading on from trying out making different textures in clay, is to use these to make two contrasting pieces: one referencing man-made qualities and the other natural.

I started off working on my man-made piece before moving on the natural one. I wanted to make some sort of creature for both.

Based on some of the patterns I had made previously on test tiles and new ones I tried out on a slab I made a selection of patterned elements from which I assembled my final piece.

Here are the final elements to choose from. Even though I like the patterns on all I had to make a selection. I chose to keep the round sphere plain in order to have one quiet element to set the others off against.

These are some of drawings I made in order to help me make a decision on how to combine the elements.

These are photos and drawings of my finished creature before it went into bisque firing. I am fairly happy with the result. However, the toes on its feet are the week point. They were not perfectly even in length and have bent through holding up the weight of the piece.