Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Sgraffito

Hi! I'm Cristina and I love the clay technique called Sgraffito.

Sgraffito is when something like underglaze is applied to Greenware, which is unfired clay, and then scratched away using something like a needle tool.   In this blog entry I will be showing you the step by step process of doing sgraffito!

1. First you need your item made out of clay.  I will be using a bone dry clay plate I made from a mold. you can also use leatherhard clay. Remember, this is clay that has not been fired yet.

The clay that I am using is gray in appearance before it it fired.

2. Have your image.  It is better to draw or have an image ready before you start scratching away.  This helps to make sure you don't make mistakes.


3. Paint your underglaze.  For this plate I am using blue underglaze. Paint it in an even way across the area where you want to sgraffito.



4. Get your needle tool.  Here are some pictures of how I hold the needle tool.  I hold it like a pencil.



5. Start scratching.  When you scratch it is best to lightly blow at the same time because the dust will make it hard to see what you are doing.  This plate is bone dry which is why it makes dust while I scratch.  if done on leatherhard clay there will be crumbles you need to dust away.



6. Continue scratching to make your design.




7. When you are done all you need to do is bisque fire it!

Thanks for reading!

Author: Christina Quintana

No comments:

Post a Comment