Claudio's Urn

This is a Urn that i designed for my late older brother. It was wheel thrown and turned. After it was bisqued, I high-fired a crystalline glaze onto the surface of the body. I  carved a lotus bud and added it on the lid and fired it separately to earthenware temperature using a honey glaze to match the honey background color on the body. The writing on the body is my late brother's name (Claudio Sanna), his date of birth and death followed by a message 'from the family', saying "We Love You". The nickel oxide in the glaze give this urn it's blue crystals.

Platters

These platters were wheel thrown and turned. The platter on the left was colored with oxides and fired to a stoneware temperature of 1260^oC. It is a non-utiliterian piece and is left unglazed as the matt design has an aesthetic appeal and contasts to the slightly shinely, vitrified surface under neath.

The first thing catches ones eye when they see the platter on the right is the dead rat in the centre, this was achieved using the paper resist method. The line decoration around the rat was incised through a purple under-glaze, emphasizing the rat and the humor it creates. This platter was glazes with a transparent glaze and fired to 1100^oC.

Horny Pots

These Pots were hand built using the coiling method. The type of clay is terrocotta, which was well grogged to strengthen the clay. The horns on the shoulders and the side of the pots are solid and measure up to 7cm long. The pots were pit-fired to blacken them.

Wooden Tea Pots

These two tea pots were shaped and modelled from a block of clay. I then cut them in half to hollow them out and joined the halves back together to give them a function as well as an appeal. Only the inside is glazed and the outside was carved and coloured with oxides to give it a tree-like appearance.

Torn Buddha face

In this work, I modelled the Buddha face as one would when building a relief sculpture. I then made a mould of the face and pressed clay into it, hence the term 'press-moulding'. I then made a hole under the chin of the face using a nail thicker than the one in the image above, taking in consideration  the shrinkage of the hole in the firing. I nailed it to a block of wood and held the face up using piece of wire that i wrapped around the nail. This piece is 19.5cm high.

Bronze Man

This bronze sculpture is a conceptual piece, roughly sculpted out of the mind to show my expression. A small sculpture that i slip cast and glazed in bronze. It is 12cm high & 8cm wide. fired to 1080^oC.

Ceramic tree branch

This branch was shaped and carved from a block of clay and hollowed out before it was bisque-fired. It was then coloured with oxides to create the appearance of a tree branch and finished off with a few layers of Borax and fired to 1080 degrees celcius.

My tea set

In this work, the handle of my cups are the strongest point, and are emphasized by painting them black. the entire tea set was slip-casted in earthenware, glazed with a white opaque glaze with splashes of black on-glaze to finish it off.

Self sculptures

These sculptures are self sculptures that were slip-casted in earthenware. Two of the sculptures, on the left and middle, were "marbled" using casting slips that were mixed with oxides to create this effect. The sculpture on the right looks as if it is cracking; i painted a layer of white slip over the already fired piece and re-fired it. All three sculptures were glaze-fired to 1100 degrees celcius with a transparent glaze.