1. Ensuring outstanding teaching in art & design
Art academy
Ensuring outstanding teaching in art & design

2. Ceramic faces
Lesson 4

3. Ceramic Gargoyle Heads

4. Ceramic Gargoyle Heads
Gargoyles are grotesque, horrible sculptures that were carved during Medieval times (1200AD – 1500AD). They were a feature of Gothic architecture originally designed as a water spout designed to spout water from the building roof (when it was raining) so that it did not run down the walls or foundations (and so prevented the building from weakening).
The word gargoyle is derived from the French word for throat. (hence gargling water).
Gargoyles were a grotesque image of:
An ugly human face
Animals
Mythical creatures (dragons, unicorns)
As well as providing drainage for the building, they were also designed to frighten off evil spirits.

6. Stage 1 – Roughing Out
You begin by making an oval slab of thick clay. This is your basic face shape. You create the 3-D form by bending it around a ball of newspaper.
You then stand the ceramic slab up.

7. Stage 2 – Adding Clay
Additional features such as the ears, nose, eyebrows are added using the scratch and slip method. Make sure that you blend the clay together so that you cannot see the join.

8. Stage 3 – Removing Clay
Certain features, such as the eye sockets and the mouth require you to remove clay. For this you will need to use some of the clay tools.

9. Stage 4 – Adding texture
Other clay tools can be used to add detail and texture to your sculpture.
For flowing detail you can add much softer, more pliable clay and sculpt using tools and brushes