Sculpture and Creating Architectural Ornament

Sometimes a demonstration piece takes on a life of its own. 

Here are these architectural ornament reliefs just out of the kilns. There is a difference of ten degrees of firing temperature between the right and the left. It's a big difference. 

On the left, the glaze breaks over the high points and pools in the low, giving a wide range of color. On the right, the glaze is ultra matt, consistent overall.

Which do you prefer?

Detail of glaze breaking over forms

Detail of right square with matt glaze.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Original fragment from the Architectural Heritage Center. The show was ARCHITECTURE IN BLOOM: BOTANICAL BUILDING ORNAMENTATION

I needed to create sculpture for a demonstration at Hughes Water Gardens and needed something portable, so I decided to re-create the piece above with both right and left sides.

I printed the photograph and created the opposite side in clay. The scale, 15 x15, inches was the largest square possible using my friend's electric kiln.

Here are both right and left completed in plaster with a coat of shellac on the left

Earlier version with the completed clay on left, original image, and all the tools I used.