Faces

REALISTIC HEAD/RATTLES

CERAMICS I

clay, glazes & oxides

These heads are always so much fun.

I asked for expression and the kids delivered!

I also required that they fill the head with dried clay balls so that it becomes a rattle as well.

Most of the kids have never drawn a head before let alone sculpted one,

so this is definitely a challenge.

Before they begin I go over head formulas.

  They take notes and diagram where the features go.

I also demo/build half a head for them which really helps as well.

I also recommended pictures of faces to be brought in.

Look closely at this wonderfully expressive one by junior Sarah Wu 

and you will see that the clay is marbled thru the Transparent glaze.

I love when that happens.

Next we have these three by juniors Edward Malacon, Annie Oh and Manav Gandhi.

Most of the kids struggle with how to do hair.

We apply it on at the end.  

So it's really fun to see how each of these kids dealt with it.

For some reason women are more difficult to pull off than men.  

Of course putting on a longer hairstyle helps;

but I really feel that senior Archana Vancheswaran has managed to capture a female here on the left with that knowing expression and the full lip half smile.

And the expressive look that was captured in the piece on the right by junior Benjamin Barnett

really captures my attention because of it's innocence and soul searching eyes.

I also admire how both chose to glaze and finish their heads.

They stained with oxides,

and Ben put a bit of blue glaze in the eyes again making his piece come alive.

I wish I had photographed these next three from a better angle 

so you could have seen their expressive features better.

All of these were really wonderfully crafted.

Looks a bit like Leonard Nimoy there in the middle from Star Trek.

We have from left to right senior Aaron Chough and juniors Cathy Huang and Sarah Chang.

All three stained with Red Iron Oxide and Aaron also added black glaze on his hair and mustache.

But the class favorite was sculpted by junior Nathan Lam.

He used his grandfather as inspiration.

Sadly the top part of the head blew off in the kiln.

Thankfully some of the shards survived

 and he was able to glue several`back so I could take a pix and put on display.

Another class favorite was this one by senior Jonathan Hsu.

If any of you are following Vikings on the history channel,

this one reminds me of the scary shaman of the tribe.

Jonathan  has stained with both Red Iron Oxide and Rutile.

Love it Jonathan!