Fine Art Foundation Degree

Glazes For the glazes, I had a few options. I could use one solid glaze, multiple brush on glazes, or underglazes and a clear glaze on top, so I played around with a few options. Underglaze An underglaze is used under a clear overglaze and can be used to add details that you can't get with a regular glaze. What I was aiming for in this process was to have the underglaze bring out the pattern of the scales. I tested out five different underglazes: copper, cobalt, iron, manganese and manganese gold. I made test pieces out of white earthenware, and pressed a sheet of metal with holes in onto the top to produce 'scales' so I could see how they would interact and bring out the texture.  I tested out two different methods for applying them. First, I brushed the glazes onto a test piece, then wipe a potion of it off with a damp sponge. This was to see how each of them would turn out, as either a solid colour or only in the indents of the scales. As you can see, the only underglaze...

 Making my Final Piece Shape Once I had settled on making black king snakes for my final piece, I then had to go into 'production mode' and produce enough to display. It was at this point that I discovered it was easier, quicker, and more realistic to shape the snakes into an 'S' rather than a coil. This is because when I coiled them, the bodies would dry out and crack, whereas the 'S' shape lessened the chance of them cracking (and was easier to fix when they did), and they looked more natural. This shape then led me to design my final piece as if the snakes are 'slithering' over an object.  Display After talking to my tutors I decided that I would display my snakes by having them slithering over a mirror. It was suggested to use a mirror with an ornamental frame, but I felt that it would be too 'busy' and the frame would end up taking the attention away from the snakes. I then chose to use a simple mirror which I found at Wilko as my base. It w...

 First Thoughts For my final project I had to think of a whole new topic to use as a starting point. I very quickly chose to do something with snakes as I find them so interesting, but also because they hold so much power in mythology as well as the animal kingdom. I started by looking at different depictions of snakes throughout history in art.  Snakes in Art   Zoe Keller  Where We Once Lived 2 Keller uses graphite to draw extremely detailed pictures to explore biodiversity and wild places. This drawing is of a Copperbelly Water Snake and is part of the Scale and Bone  series which focuses on at-risk or extinct snakes.  Minoan Snake Goddess Snakes held multiple associations for the Minoans such as rejuvenation, as snakes shed their skins, and resurrection, as they can move both above and below ground. The Goddess herself represents fertility and sexuality and this statue was found at a Minoan archaeological site in Crete at the Palace of Knossos....