Portfolio > SU Fall 2019 Advanced Ceramics (all levels)

Art 315: Ceramics II
Assignment: Sgraffito and Mishima Techniques

Students decorate 2 – 6 'green' pots using both the Mishima and Sgraffito techniques (quantity depends on time spent with each piece).
Mishima:
Carving lines using a mini-ribbon tool, or needle tool, or Xacto blade and then applying underglaze or oxide wash to the lines. You can do this on either leather-hard clay, or leather-hard clay that has a coat of wax resist.
If applied to leather-hard clay, after the underglaze/stain dries you scrape it back with a rib. If using wax, you wipe off the excess with a sponge.
Sgraffito:
Painting underglaze or slip over the surface of a leather hard/wet piece of clay, and then carving a decoration using ribbon tools or some other carving tool.

This cup (2 images of the same piece) was started from a slab cylinder, and was inspired by the sgraffito and mishima assignment (although the student then added underglaze decorations after carving her designs). The cup is approx. 8" tall, fired to cone 6 in oxidation (electric kiln).