Ouroboros is an ancient symbol, depicted as a serpent or dragon that devours it’s own tail. It represents the unity of all things, material and spiritual, they never disappear but perpetually change form in an endless cycle of destruction and creation. Eternity and endless return. This was one of those projects that I have been thinking about for a while before actually attempting to make it. I love this symbol and it’s meaning and wanted to create something in appreciation for it.
I started by throwing a doughnut shape on the wheel, from there I cut into the circle to make the tail part thinner, cut away some clay, and connected it back together. After that I sculpted the snake head, which was the longest but most fun part of the process. To add the texture to the skin I used a scale rolling tool.
After the piece dried it went into the kiln for a bisque firing, then I got started on glazing! I knew that I wanted Ouroboros to be dark green and for the scales to still be prominent in the end result. In order to get my desired effect I put a wash of black underglaze on the whole piece and then sponged a good amount of it off to give the details more definition. I added a thin layer of San Miguel glaze onto the eyes so they would have a gloss to them and added Soft Green to the whole thing. After that I waited in excitement to see what it would end up looking like.
Overall I’m really happy with how this came out! I love the amount of detail that I got after glazing, and it’s really shiny in person, which I enjoy. It comes off more brown than green but it has some interesting color variations throughout. This is definitely one of my favorite things I’ve made this semester.
