Category: Handcrafted Clay

Going Nowhere Series

This was a series a long time in the making. The idea came to me whilst I was still in New Bern. NC over 4 years ago, I pinned the sketch on my ideas board. I moved to Tucson. AZ and once again pinned the sketch on the board. I talked to some friends about the connotations of the headdress and shelved the idea  as being culturally incorrect. 

My subconscious would not let it go. So finally at the beginning of last year, I felt compelled to make the piece for myself. Around the same time my life disintegrated, in the span of 6 months Covid hit, my 25 year marriage ended, my Dad died and my beloved cat died. Needless to say the pieces were forgotten on the shelf for another 6 months. 

2021 rolls around and in the spirit of tying up loose ends to start the New year fresh, I decide to finish the pieces. Into the cone 5 firing they go. When I get them out they no longer rock!!!!     At first, I’m upset but then I’m laughing, how appropriate. Not only are they going nowhere, now they are totally stationary.

Yes I have to be hit on the head by the preverbal 2” x 4” to see things. So the universe, my subconscious, angels, whoever made it happen. The weight of possessions, expectations and wanting security punched down the center support on the  feathered one and high centered it. The heat in the kiln totally flattened out the rails on the cowboy piece.  My life had needed to change for a while.

Time to take life as it comes, day by day and Trust things will work out.

3 Ball Bitch in the Making

Time to create. My artwork was accepted to be in the second annual Brandi Fenton Sculpture Show and I did not have any large sculptures available.
There was a photograph of a dog holding three balls in its mouth on my notice board, put there with the idea of my doing a painting of it. I loved the image so much I thought it would make a great sculpture.
In my imagination the dog became a hound, I liked the idea of a rangy body, long limbs and big feet.

I started off by measuring my kiln to see how big I could make it. Then worked out how big the foot print of the sculpture would be in relationship to the finished size and marked my work table as a guide.

Next I made a small Marquette to help me visualize the outside shape as I would be coiling making a hollow form to make the dog.

Then got started rolling coils using a cone 5 clay.

  • sculpture Marquette
  • Too fat
  • Too tall
  • working on the front legs and attaching them
  • off with the tail
  • Wrapped up while I work on the face.
  • In the kiln ready for the first firing.

A couple weeks later she is totally dry and ready to be placed in the kiln. Whoops! 
She won’t fit !!!!!!  Well I never said math was one of my strong suites. Because she is triangle, she takes up more space than a more rectangle piece.    

So now what to do…… call round all the potters I know to see if anyone has a kiln bigger than mine.  No luck there. Okay time to amputate. Saw off the tail and reattach it pointing to the side. Now I do have quite a lot of experience in attaching dry clay together. (That was how I joined the totem-pole animals together, up to 5 animals standing on top of each other circa 1990)

Okay back in business once her tail is repositioned. She now fits inside the tape measurements marking the maximum size and therefore she should fit in the kiln.

All done.