I haven't tried a larger piece of work for a while since I've mainly been working on throwing & glaze calc in class, but I had the day off yesterday, so I figured I'd have another go at it. After watching some videos online, I decided the best way to go about it would be to coil build rather than slab work as I had done before. Here are some pics of the process~
It was all going quite well until this point- until I got to the head. I always have such trouble with the head on larger pieces. I don't know exactly why this is. In my mind's eye, I can see where I want to go, but it just doesn't translate from my mind to my hands to the clay. Total time spent on this piece was about 11 hours. At least 1/2 of that time was spent on the neck & head, as I added & subtracted features & texture.
It was getting late & I still had a lot of clean-up to do to get my kitchen cleaned up & in functional order, so rather than tear the head apart again, I decided to call it good at this point.
I'm actually not even sure whether or not I'll fire this guy, or put him in the recycle bucket. He's about 2 feet long & 10 inches high, and I'm not sure how my instructors will respond to me wanting to take up so much kiln space since I'm not taking a sculptural class this semester. Also, I built him w/ a clay body better suited to throwing... it's a softer clay w/ less grog, and I am not sure how it would hold up. I do, however, want to continue making these sculptures this semester, though I plan on going about 1/2 this size... I want to keep practicing until I get something I really like so that when I formulate a really cool glaze in my glaze calculation class I can create a truly unique piece.
8 comments:
Wow, how can you not fire this puppy! You are so amazing and I admire your patience. Your right this class I am taking is very intense. I a project that is really going to test my patience for sure. I hope the rest of your week is good. I am looking forward to a three day weekend. :-)
He's huge, well done. Definitely fire him, some of my best pieces have been ones I wasn't going to fire or were ones I learned a lot from after firing.
This process is far more complicated than a non-artist might realize. I admire your tenacity!
Becky,
I think it is amazing what you can do in a day! That would have taken me 3, 8 hour days and even then I am not sure I could go that big.
I hope you get to fire him, I would love to see what you have learned in the glaze class!
Have a great week!
xoxo
What a BIG guy - I hope you can fire him. How the heck will you transport him? I'd have trouble carrying him! (I'm also having trouble with the new word verification! Must be my old eyes.)
amazing to see the stages of this piece! loved seeing how it is formed. I say..... if you love it have it fired, if not - awesome practice.
I really enjoyed seeing the process of the clay taking good shape. Good job and hope you will fire him:)
Have a wonderful day.
Yoshi
Ah, it's been a while since I could slip away and go blog visiting. Been spending some time here looking at your adventures making pots and bears, and way back to your Christmas presents ! Great stuff - I'm sure your recipients were quite pleased.
And what a gorgeous sky you posted back in Jan !!! Lucky it lasted till you got home - that will teach you to ABC !
Have a great weekend Becky.
Oh - and that header is a beauty !
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