Butterfly Clay Relief Tile

 

           Here is the last project that our class did this year.  It is a clay relief tile. (I don't know why it's a 'relief' tile)  We started off with two sketches of what our tile would look like and chose one.  We took a thick square piece of clay on a wood board, and modeled other pieces to add onto it.  I made a rainforest scene with flowers and butterflies.  There were three flowers, lavender, pink, and orange, and two butterflies, blue and red.  The molding was pretty hard.  You had to make the right shapes and the soft clay didn't hold well, but I managed without ruining the thing.  I also make the clay look 3-D by propping up the wings of the butterfly and the petals on the pink flower.
        We let the clay dry for a few days, and it turned a light grey color.  Then our teacher fired them for us to paint. Unfortunately I didn't get to finish, there are still shadows to add and still a few mistakes for me to paint over, but it's pretty much done.  I had to be extra careful with the leaves on the edges of the tile because they are really really thin. I don't know how I'm going to be able to take this home. XD
         This project has been by far my favorite, it was interesting and really fun to work on.  The tile turned out well and looks even better when painted. I walked around and got to see the tile made by my classmates, and they looked really good too. Everyone enjoyed making these. I hope I will have the chance to do this again someday!