Dreaming of Animals

For the past several nights I've been dreaming of animals; thinking how to construct them in sculptural form. Today I decided to try my hand at sculpting a horse. I used a modified format of my strips of clay technique to construct the body parts, the torso, legs, and head. Later I added the feet, ears, mane and tail. I'm surprised this little guy, about seven inches tall, stands on his own without any support. Who knows if he'll dry that way.

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After I made him, I thought he looked like what I thought an Icelandic horse would. I found these images of Icelandic horses and he does look like one of them. I see they have a fuller mane than I've given him I'll have to make another one with a full mane. Icelandic horses are stocky and sturdy and sure to withstand the rigors of Icelandic winters.

He also reminds me of the wooden Trojan Horse which allowed the Greeks to enter the city of Troy.. Now I'm envisioning ways to make other sculptural animal forms. Perhaps I'll build clay plinths and set the animal sculptures on them to make them sturdier.

The past few weeks Gary sold lots of pottery at the Trash to Treasures sale. Every day he packs up to leave, he says pottery doesn't sell. Then he comes home telling me of sales of my pottery. Yesterday a gentleman said he's been a collector of pottery for many years.  He said my pottery is art, not the run of the mill cups, bowls, plates, he usually sees, etc.

Above are a couple of pieces of my pottery he purchased. Nothing against functional pottery since I make that type of pottery too. But it was so nice to learn someone appreciates the other types of work I do. These are the types of work I have so much fun making, the more esoteric or sculptural type of work.  So many ideas and so little time. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.