Artist Statement I am freshman, and this is my first time taking a ceramics class. As a beginner ceramic artist, I wanted to do something that would be simple. Keeping this in mind, I chose to do black and white sgraffito patterns on plates and bowls. I got the idea to do sgraffito from doing a scratchboard project last year in my art class. After throwing and trimming a couple of forms, I then covered them with a black underglaze. I then put them back on the wheel and carved them with a scratch tool to get perfect circles. Using a needle tool, I then carved patterns between the circles to add detail and texture. I chose black and white, to add contrast to the patterns, and emphasize them even more.I used the wheel to make sure that the circles proportions were even and equal.