Ashely Adamo's Toad House

Ashley Adamo

1.If I were to describe my artwork in detail, I would first have to tell you what it looks like. It is a circular clay that was molded off of a mold. The shape of it is pretty much an upside down bowl. I made a chimney for it which I made to look like a brick design, the color of it is a fire hydrant red. I made this so it looks more like a house. It has a circular door that I cut out of it, it’s not to tall of a door nor too short. The length of the door is just perfect it’s easy for a normal, outdoor, wild toad to fit inside. I designed a few apple green vines that loop around the house so that it looks more outdoor, kind of like a forest. I attached flowers to the vines to make it more girly for girl toads, these flowers were purple with a blue-green middle with polka dots all over the flower to make it look like seeds so it would be more natural, especially more colorful. Then last but not least I place sign above the toad door which says “Toad house”. I made the color of this sign a caramel wooden brown so that it would look like a wooden sign. My purpose for this piece was to create something that can belong outside and that can benefit to the outdoor creatures such as toads.

2. In detail I’ll explain the materials, tools and techniques I used to created this art piece. First off, to create the house in itself, I had to use the pug mill and the slab roller. I got clay  from the pug mill and then put it in the slab roller so it would flatten out into a pancake. I then got a hard bowl-like shape mold and used it to place my slab of clay on top of so it would harden and create the same shape as the mold. After that I used a sharp edge cutter to cut off extra pieces of the clay that was overlapping off of the mold and I also used this tool to cut out the door. I then used a sponge and water to smooth the house. I used the extra scrap pieces that I had left over to create the chimney, I attached these pieces using the score a slip method, and then used a tool to smooth out the inside of the chimney and the sides of the chimney. I also used the score and slip method when I attached the vines and flowers.

3. Finally,  I do like this art piece I made. I like it because its a good balanced composition. It makes a viewer look at it for all angles because they wonder what’s all around it. I believe it also represents good craftsmanship because It has radiate bright colors and good designs and its very lively.