In the summer of 2019, I began creating low relief sculptural tiles of various animals. The intent was to create pieces that were not to be hung on a wall, but displayed on an easel.
I was inspired by a book of relatively simple line drawings of reptiles that I own. I became comfortable creating the turtles and snakes and then branched out to other animals. I also experimented with different background ideas – I used pre-made underglaze decals, hole punch shapes, and took inspiration from the decoration on Anthropologie shopping bags.
All pieces were painted with underglaze while they were still greenware, after they were bisqued, I added black underglaze to enhance different textures and details. I used a brown speckled clay that I unfortunately started running into problems with concerning glazing. My last pieces – the small foxes, the panda, the snail, and the gnomes – have white spots and pitting. I never figured out what caused these issues and eventually switched to white, non speckled clay.
