Sgraffito: carve a line, reveal the clay.
Sgraffito is a pottery carving technique: you cut through underglaze or slip to reveal the clay body beneath. Dragonfly clay carving tools give you fine lines, crisp edges, and a drawing that's part of the pot.
Shop Sgraffito Kits
Two ways to carve clay with sgraffito
Pick one to see the difference between carving a line and carving the background.
Draw with lines of bare clay.
Apply underglaze or colored slip
Coat leather hard clay with a layer of underglaze or colored slip.
Carve away the outer layer
Cut through the color with a pottery carving tool to reveal the clay beneath.
You're left with a design
Lines of bare clay stand out against the color. That's a sgraffito design.
Let the color be the drawing.
Apply underglaze or colored slip
Same start: a layer of underglaze or colored slip on leather hard clay.
Carve away the negative space
Carve away the color around your lines and inside the shapes. The color left behind is the drawing.
The color becomes the design
A line drawing in color, with bare clay all around it.
Pick a pottery carving blade, see the mark
Small crisp grooves and fine line work for sgraffito and detailed clay carving.
Each blade shows the mark it makes in clay from above. The faded edge is the depth.
A second set of detail shapes for more variety in your marks.
Each blade shows the mark it makes in clay from above. The faded edge is the depth.
Arc blades carve very differently from the detail blades, which opens up a whole other set of marks in clay.
Each blade shows the mark it makes in clay from above. The faded edge is the depth.
Pick your sgraffito tool kit
Complete Kit