Geometric Sgraffito

 Having really enjoyed the process of Sgraffito, I thought I would try and make a largish bowl with an interesting geometric design.

 I created a slump bowl into a towel tied across a lampshade,  smoothed it out and left it to dry to leather-hard.

Next I painted it with 2-3 coats of pale blue coloured slip.

Then I decided to add some random splashes of dark blue coloured slip.

Now it was time to draw out a design.

 

I followed the Mustansiriya Madrasa pattern from the book  ‘Islamic Geometric Patterns’ by Eric Broug.

I placed the pattern onto the middle of the dish and pin-pricked around the outlines.

I then peeled the paper off, replaced it so it would tessellate, and did the process again.  I added the pattern 5 times in total.

Then it was time to carve out all of the mark lines. 

 

This is such a satisfying process.  Very zen like – until it goes wrong of course!

Once done, it was time to leave the bowl to dry out some more (fingers crossed it survives) then off to the kiln to be biscuit fired.