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Personal Series
Originally this wasn't going to become my first art project of my personal series but as it went on, little did I know this would be the start of creating something I will forever be proud of and that will possibly inspire me to make others just like it in the future.
This first piece started off as a simple vase. I don't really know what inspired me to make it out of an octopus tentacle but I just knew I was determined to make it work!
I began with rolling out a long slab piece of clay and then cut out the shape of the arm that was going to work best as the handle for the vase. Once that was put in place, I rolled up little balls of clay until they were an even shape. After I had made enough of the sizes I desired, I would then press them down to a slight pancake shape and slipped and scored each individual piece where I thought they fit and looked best. Once I knew they were secured on there, I took the end of a paint brush and slightly pressed it into each piece of clay to create the "sucker" look.
Once all that was finished, I smoothed out any cracks and slip that was shown in the open spaces to make it look realistic as possible. After it was fired, I was faced with the difficult task of deciding what to paint or glaze my project to bring it to life. It took me a while, but I finally decided to try the ceramic glaze method using velvet glaze to create the look I wanted. One image in particular caught my eye that seemed to be the perfect choice. (See image below)
I had never used the velvet glazes before and therefore I was pretty nervous how it was going to turn out, but it came out way better than I had expected! It not only looks exactly how I had imagined, but it is also fully functional.
For my second personal series, I decided to do a much bigger vase using two parts built into one and I wanted to make it more realistic. I used the same method when creating the arms and suckers for this piece as I did the first one, but instead of having flat arms, I thought it would work better to make them rounded and more fuller. Instead of having 1 or 8 arms, I figured it would also work better to do three slightly bigger pieces to add to the vase and to make it less susceptible to breaking and easier to carry.
This piece had taken weeks to finish, but in the end it turned out just how I had imaged. I also had decided to leave it un-glazed simply because I had to decided to paint it instead using acrylic paint, which I will then spray with a protective coat. So stay tuned for an update with the finished look!
Lastly, for my third and final personal series I decided at the last minute to do something even bigger and better than my last two! I created my third piece using three sections and combining them to make an even taller piece. I also decided to make much longer and slightly more intricate arms.
I couldn't decide whether or not though to add the suckers onto this one for the sake of worrying about time. So I did a poll and people had voted that I add the suckers so I did, and it only took me 3 hours to complete!
Surprisingly enough, this piece only took me about a total of three days to complete, where as the other two took a couple weeks to finish.
Once all the suckers were on, it was time to let it become bone dry before it could be fired.
As soon as it was completely dry, I sanded off the excess edges of the suckers for a more smooth finish.
Like my previous project, I had decided that once it was fired I was going to paint it using acrylic paint. I wanted to make this one unique and the photo above has inspired me to paint it similar to the one you see. It is still a work in progress but if there's one thing I have learned from this experience it's that you can't rush perfection.
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(projects are currently not on sale)
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