Project by Sandra Luehrsen from Tempe, Ariz.
Sandra was an art major in college. One semester she signed up for a sculpture class, but due to a clerical error, she ended up in pottery class instead. She was stuck with the class and luckily wound up loving pottery. In this project, she builds a small hanging ceramic heart with a flower, and then takes a photograph of it to create a greeting card on her computer. It's the perfect gift with a matching card.
Materials:
2-4 lbs. red earthenware clay
rolling pin or slab roller
shaping and cutting tools (e.g., wooden sculpting tools, rubber ribs, loop tools, pin tool, wood rasp, knife)
foam rubber sheets
fabric or paper
bowl of water
a fine and a thick brush
heavy- and lightweight sheet plastic
heart template
pasta cutting tool or pinking shears
flower image to use as reference
greeting card
camera
film
photo flood lights
computer
scanner
photo software
ink jet printer
card stock (8-1/2" x 11")
Steps:
1. Wedge (knead) the clay to work all air bubbles out. Flatten the ball of clay by throwing it down on the table a few times. Squeeze into a rough flattened heart shape.
2. Cut a short vertical line at the top of the heart with a knife or pin tool. Continue to press and squeeze refining the shape.
3. Turn heart over on foam rubber sheet lined with cloth or paper. Carve as much excess clay as possible from back of heart, leaving a deep trough at the top center for a nail to fit when it?s ready to hang. Let heart dry until leather hard.
4. Refine and smooth heart shape from front. Use wood rasp to take off high spots and then smooth with metal and rubber ribs.
5. Begin making geranium by rolling slab about 1/8 inch thick on thin plastic sheet. Flip slab over onto thick plastic sheet, keeping thin sheet stuck to top of slab.
6. Peel back small section of thin plastic and cut five small teardrop petals out of slab with pin tool or commercial shape cutter. Soften and thin edges of petals by pinching. Gently pinch pointed bottoms of petals together forming a semi circle.
7. To make the stamen, roll as thin a coil as possible and break the coil into small pieces, pinching them together at the base. Position the stamen at the center of the semi circle of petals and close the petals so they surround the stamen.
8. Using a small wooden sculpting tool, work the clay together at the bottom of the small flower. Use small foam rubber sheet lined with fabric or paper to lay wet clay flowers without distorting them. Repeat at least seven or eight times.
9. Let flowers dry until leather hard.
10. Position geranium by placing the center flower on the heart. To give a dome shape to the geranium, put the center flower on short pedestal of hollowed clay.
11. Score (scrape) with pin tool and wet surfaces of heart, pedestal and flower to be attached. Wet with large brush. Attach by gently pressing scored surfaces together.
12. Clean wet clay from seams with dampened small brush. Poke hole in hollow pedestal to let air escape.
13. Place other flowers in circle around center flower. Attach flowers to heart by scoring, wetting, and cleaning as described above.
14. Create a leaf by cutting a fan shape from the slab. Pinch edges to make them smooth and thin. Carve lines with wood sculpting tool. Shape leaf as desired. Create geranium leaf.
15. Score/scrape clay with pin tool and wet surfaces of heart and flower to be attached with large brush. Attach leaf to heart by gently pressing together. Clean wet clay from seams with dampened small brush.
16. Let heart and flower sit until the clay is bone dry. Bisque fire at cone 03 (a little over 1987 F degrees).
17. Apply three or four coats of different-colored glazes on flower and heart. Fire to cone 06 (1823 F degrees ).
18. Photograph heart against black background. Scan image into computer at 360 dpi or higher. Import scanned image into photo software. Manipulate image to desired look and print photo-quality image on card stock.
Website: www.artistsregister.com/artists/AZ313
