Sue Tirrell at pine creek school

The week of February 25th was Creek Week! I started out in Gold Creek, then Pine Creek on Tuesday, the 27th, and Pass Creek on Friday. Creeks all over the place! (I also went to Gallatin Gateway, but that doesn't really fit into the "creek" motif.)

I always love revisiting schools, and seeing Pine Creek again was even more special because local artist Sue Tirrell came to the school to demonstrate the sgraffito technique her work is known for. These students were amazed while they watched Sue do her work. 

After throwing her ceramic pottery on a potter's wheel, Sue uses a material called "underglaze" to paint an image onto the green ware while it's still soft. Underglaze acts like watercolor on ceramic, and fires matte with a matte surface. Green ware is ceramic that has not yet been fired. She likes to paint animal figures, and will study the shape of the dish and form the animal to that shape.

After painting the image onto her dish, she uses a tiny wire tool to carve through the under glaze into the clay. The underglaze is cut out in long thin ribbons, which are discarded, leaving the gray ceramic to show through. 

Nearly finished!

When Sue came into Pine Creek, there were no carved marks on this horse. You can see details of that in the flowers above the horse's back, vs. the ones below his belly. In the end, they will all be carved. Once fired, the clay will be a slightly different white from the white of the underglazed horse. Then, Sue will clear glaze the dish, making it shiny and protecting the underglazed images.

 Thanks to Kim DeBruycker, superintendent, for inviting me back to Pine Creek, and to Sue for being so generous with her time!

​Check out Sue's website for more of her incredible work. 
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Elementary students at Pine Creek School with Sue Tirrell in the center.