For my final project this is the pod that I decided to make. All my five pods and my three test pieces will all have the same form and design. So far I have one completed. It has already been fired and it is going to be cold finished. Cold finished is where you add black under glaze to the pod all over. Then you get paint and brush it all around the pod gently. You don't want to put to much because it wont look good. To make this piece, I used soldate clay. First I had to make a round pod and shape it into the form that it needed to be shaped into. Then I partially cut out part of the top, so it could be open, I had to cut off part of the edges to that the pod would not look so thick, then i had to smothe it out. The inside and outside had to be smoothed as well. As I smoothed it out, I had to make sure that I was also shaping the pod into the form of a leaf. The most challenging part of creating this piece, was trying to find a good way to make the flower fit inside of the pod. But from the help of my class mates they let me know if the pod looked ok as I found ways to put the flower inside, each time they would tell me how it should look. For the middle of the flower, I am going to do flocking. It is really neat, it looks like pollen. And it is very soft. If i could change something from creating this piece, I would have made the pedals on the flower a little bit thicker, that way some of them wouldn't have broken off. I fell that I have almost accomplished my goal, because I am almost done making all of my pods.
This is what my pod looks like on the inside with out the flower in it.
This is the flower that I made to go inside my pod.
This is what the side of the flower looks like, as you can see, I had to add three layers of pedals to it. So that the flower could look like it had bloomed open.
These are all the pods that I have made. The thing that I was trying to accomplish, was to have all the pods with the flower inside of them done. But unfortunately, I was not able to finish them all on time. But I will be coming in after I get out of school and spend the whole day in the pottery room to finish my pods. Overall, I feel really good about my pods. I like them, and the way they look. I wouldn't have changed anything that I have made. The thing that I like about my pods, is how some of them are bigger and smaller than others. I like it, because as an organic form, not all things grow at the same pace.
