I ran out of white clay so I decided to try what I had in mind with speckled tan clay. I wanted to make a tower using a contrasting color of slip to join the strips together, so for this tower the clay is tan and the slip is Navajo red.
After I constructed the piece I took a tooth brush and brushed the still wet slip which had oozed out of the seams around and around the piece horizontally. After the slip dries I'll rig up a mini piece of sand paper attached to a flat object to carefully sand back some of the red clay slip, sanding in the same direction as the strips (horizontal). We'll see if the seams hold and the slip adheres.
For some reason I'm drawn to circles right now and the top portion of this tower evolved on it's own. This piece makes me think of peering into the eyes of the soul. It's about 15 inches tall by 3 inches wide.
I snapped a shot of the female
gopher tortoise going into her burrow. Every day this week we've had at least an inch of rain. Most of my vegetables have bitten the dust so I weeded my block bins today. Interspersed with the veges I have herbs planted, like rosemary, lavender, and thyme among others. The herbs are all doing fine. This post is part of the
Mud Colony what's happening in the studio; click on over to see what others are up to. Thanks for reading and for all your encouragement.
I love your contrasting slip tower, very neat idea! Ceramics is my other love. I haven't made anything for quite awhile. I am going to join a pottery co-op so I can start making some hand built lanterns, etc. I really miss working with clay.
ReplyDeleteHello Linda:
ReplyDeleteIt must be a curious thing how a piece can evolve into an entity of its own once the process of creating it has begun. We suspect this is in some ways like the characters of novels who take on lives of their own once they are born onto the page.
Your slip tower is such fun and does have a 'peeping tom' quality to it!
Those eyes, you've created a clay being of some kind. Give it a name!
ReplyDeleteA little alien asking to meet the leader.
ReplyDeleteWhere are all the babies that hatched. Are they hanging around or off on their own?
ReplyDeleteIt does look like it's alive. The slip looks great, nice contrast. What cone will you fire this piece to?
ReplyDeleteI love the effect that you've achieved Linda! I also love the piece itself. I see a face in it!
ReplyDeleteHi Terri, thanks, oh it really is fun to work with clay so relaxing and satisfying.
ReplyDeleteHi Jane and Lance, thanks, yes it must be like the characters of a novel they want to become who they were meant to be, peeping tom, Ha.
Hi Sadhana, thanks, we shall see if he makes it.
Hi Barbara, thanks, oh I better not name it till it gets fired, don't want jinx him.
Hi Joanne, thanks, yes take me to your leader.
Hi Ms. Sparrow, thanks, I don't think the babies have hatched out yet I am not eve sure she has laid them yet and gestation is 100 day so maybe not till next Spring. She has been sitting at the entrance and sunning herself a lot though.
Hi Lori, thanks, I am firing just under cone 6 with the stoneware clays I'm using.
Hi Brenda, thanks, yes a face emerged. at first I only had the top part and then at the last minute I attached the two small rings below. I'll see what happens to the slip after I sand it.
They seem to be multiplying - definitely a story with these quirky characters... love them.
ReplyDelete