Sculpture Final

I have learned how to use many new tools this year. Ribs, needle tools, the little printing roller, exacto knives, and needles, for example.  My favorite, though, was probably the pottery wheel.  It was very difficult to create anything on it, at first, because the clay kept slipping, and all I wanted to do was hurl it across the room, but the sense of accomplishment gained when I finally had a finished product was all worth it.  And by the end of my project, I was able to slam down a cone of clay onto the wheel and center it in under two minutes, which made me really happy. 

   Pottery wheels are supposed to help artists create vessels in a more timely manner, but also to expand the range of vessels they can make.  On another project, the art class physically cut out the parts of the cup and attached them all together, but everyone's designs were quite similar, merely because of the method of creation.  But the pottery wheel allowed a greater freedom of form with more ease.  The cups I made don't have sharp lines or corners -- instead, the bottom sort of slopes out to meet with the side, instead of the angle in the cups I made by hand. 

The bottom of the cup is rounded, and the cup is wider, because I made this piece on the pottery wheel. 

I have learned how to use more tool, over the course of the semester.  Especially tools pertaining to clay.  And I've learned that tools can have multiple purposes.  Like a paintbrush can add interesting texture, or a print roller can be useful for attaching seams.  But I suppose the most useful thing is that I've acquired the confidence to handle the tools, which comes with being taught how to use them and actually using them!

What was your favorite material that you used this year? Why do you like working with it?

My favorite medium this semester was most definitely clay.  It was really challenging to work with, but the finished projects always came out so well, and it was very rewarding to put in so much hard work and come out with such a nice project.  Also, I really like the tactile experience of clay.  It just makes sense, to me.  I can see the problem with what I'm doing and how to fix it right away, or I can see if it's well-done.  Clay makes it really easy for me to take what's in my head and make it three dimensional.  

   Such as this tile piece, here:  

  Though it wasn't my most favorite piece, it only gained this status because of after-production incidents.  The clay aspect of the tiles came out exactly as I'd planned, which is really why I enjoy working with clay.

Regardless of whether a project was successful or not, describe the one where you learned, grew, or developed the most from?  Please explain.

  The project I learned the most from, which happened to be the most successful, thankfully, was the figurative project.  I made a whole head!  And it was a very good head, if I do say so myself.  

I learned a lot about the anatomy of the human head, I think, but also how to get clay to do what you want.  Making the lips was very difficult, but through trial and error and aid I was able to make some that don't look too bad.  I learned a lot about shaping clay and also keeping it from drying out, and how to represent different textures.  Also, not in the vein of sculpting, I learned a lot about painting and mixing different shades, and such. 

What is your least favorite material to work with and why? How did you deal with it, what didn’t you like about it.  Please explain.

    I couldn't stand working with wire.  I made that tower, and then Cecil's glasses, and then that weird angel thing (for the wire mini-project) and I just couldn't stand it.  Because I had an image of how I wanted these pieces to turn out, but the wire had a completely different one.  It just wanted to do whatever it wanted to do, and no matter how much I fought with it, it didn't come out looking how I wanted to. 

The tower, here, is all twisty near the middle because I wasn't strong enough to bend the wire straight.  On top of that, the wire bracing that I wrapped around it didn't really help?  I guess the whole thing stopped twisting, but the wire didn't really stay as it should until I glued paper onto it.  It was just a very difficult material to work with, and it required a lot of patience, and in the end I didn't really enjoy the outcome or see any improvement in my work.  Overall, it was just an excise in frustration.