the metamorphosis of stone.

it's fired! hurrah~ see the difference between painted and unpainted ^^ the painted one seriously look like rocks - therefore i am HAPPY. :D i haven't really touched oxides at all since the box thing in sec 1, and before that i've never ever used oxides before so using them now felt like trying to rediscover old territory ehehe. I'm really proud of this picture ^^ though the significance is actually in the memories that it bring up~ Glazing my finals gave me a totally new look on oxides since my impression of them in sec 1 was just that they were really monotonous and didn't give me many colours to play with - which is probably true if you used them on smooth pieces with not much texture.. But the oxides really impressed me with the way they just neatly flowed into all the nooks and crannies of the clay, darkening some areas and lightening in others. it's ability to be sponged off also helped greatly in adding tonal value to my sculptures :D

Below is a picture of how i turn a white, fired, irregular lump of clay (bottom left) into a rock :D adding grey oxide first (top left) gets the glaze into all the little cracks and dents in the clay while it just slops thinly over smoother surfaces, and this effect works even better if you just slop the oxide on with the brush and let it kinda roll down the sides. oxide = tonal magic<3 i originally had all my rocks look like just step 2, but i decided to try and experiment on a rock and slop some diluted red+grey oxide (top right) and the effect was so good. red+grey somehow equals a really nice rustic brown that made the rocks look more organic and natural, as though the rock had been sitting in soil for years and the colour of the earth sort of diffused into it :D but then it became a bit too dark and there was not enough contrast between the lighter and darker parts for my liking so i sponged it, letting the sponge just clean away any part of the rock it could reach, getting a nice natural highlight for the final rock (bottom right) ^^ the lighter parts of the rock became a light red cause of the oxide but its fine. it adds to the rustic feel ^^