I started my tile design with a drawing of a dragon in my logbook, which was eventually transferred to tracing paper. After I rolled out a slab with Low Fire White Clay and cropped it to be proportionate to the tracing paper, I laid the paper over the slab and used a needle tool to poke through a rough outline of the dragon, and then removed the tracing paper so I could put more detail and depth into the dragon. This step took many classes. as I strived for perfection, and did not make exceptions for any slight imperfection I saw. I carved out every individual spike on the back of the dragon and even differentiates depths between the legs of the dragon that were in the foreground and background.
When I saw that I was happy with the result of my tinkering, I went into the dragon with underglaze, adding many layers and being careful to mix in slight shades into the dragon.
This is when disaster started to occur.
I wish that I would have tested the underglaze on a scrap piece of slab first because what came out of the kiln was very disappointing. I found the texture of the tile discomforting and moreover that the multiple layers that I had added had been in vain due to the fact that the underglaze didn't show in the cracks. I thought that I could salvage this loss with a further coat of clear glaze, however, this only worsened the result. This piece took over half a month and yet was destroyed by my impatience to finish it when it came time to fire it with glaze.
For my animal sculpture, I decided to sculpt a wolf out of Low Fire White clay. I started this piece by sculpting the different limbs of the wolf independently, then hollowing out the body before attaching the limbs to it. I started with a very rough texture, so I could work the limbs to the torse without worrying about keeping it smooth or making it look a certain way. After I was certain the wolf was put together and not at risk of falling apart while adding detail, I waited for the body to dry, before taking a signing tool and adding the texturing for the fur.
