Coat and scratch a test tile
Sgraffito in five words: coat it, scratch through it. The contrast between the coating and the clay body IS the design.
Steps
- Apply two coats of contrasting slip or underglaze to a small leather-hard tile
- Wait until the coating is dry to the touch but not powdery (this timing is critical!)
- Scratch a simple design through the coating: your initials, a leaf, geometric shapes
What you should see
- Clean lines where the clay body shows through
- Sharp edges on each scratched mark
- Clear contrast between coating and revealed clay
Timing clues
- Too wet → tool clogs, lines smear
- Just right → clean ribbons peel away, crisp edges
- Too dry → lines chip and crumble, dusty edges
This is the fundamental skill. Nail the timing here and everything else in sgraffito follows.