Elisabeth Bernier Slab Toad House

Elisabeth Bernier

Slab Toad House

My piece is a Rubix Cube toad house. It is a cube formed by five 6x6 square slabs. On each side there are nine marked smaller squares. The center square is carved in. My piece has a smooth texture on the outside and a natural texture on the outside. The purpose of my piece is to provide a toad a house. It is a fun, modern piece that will brighten up my mothers garden.

To create my piece I first had to make a 2D and 3D plan of it. Then I used the slab roller to create slabs to cut out five six by six slabs. Then once the slabs were leather hard I cut 45 degree angles out of three of the edges for all five sides. Once the structure was complete and smoothed (using a metal rib) I measured out the smaller square on the five sides and carved out the center smaller square for each side. Once all the refining was done it was put through the kiln. After my piece was fired I Began to paint each smaller square their designated color. Once all the colors were on I put three layers of clear glaze on top so my whole piece would come out shiny. Finally my piece was put through its final firing and was complete.   

I really like my toad house. It came out just how I wanted it. The colors are bright and fun. It also has a balanced composition, (your eye travels around the whole piece). There is a presence of all the colors at least once on each side. It also represents good craftsmanship. All five side are the same thickness and have the same amount of color squares on them. Plus none of the sides have the same arrangement of colors on them, and none of the same color are touching. All in all I really liked my piece.