The skirt is a closed, hollow form that Dave threw about a week or so ago. It's probably about twelve inches tall. On Saturday, I carved the bottom and began building the form on top. I adding the first skulls and flowers. That took most of the afternoon.
On the way home from the studio, we stopped at the Co-op to pick up something for dinner (which ended up being grilled cheese sandwiches, with sliced tomato and steamed broccoli on the side). They had a giving tree there so we grabbed a couple of ornaments from the tree; Dave selected one for an 11-year-old girl and I took one for a 16-year-old boy. The girl wanted a piano (which we took t mean a keyboard) and the boy wanted a Game Stop or Wal-Mart gift certificate (which I would guess is probably why his ornament was still on the tree, as the hippy-dippy co-op shoppers tend to be above that sort of thing). We noted that--yikes--the gifts were due back in the store on Monday, which mean that Sunday was going to have to be devoted to shopping.
We were planning on firing a kiln on Sunday, and we like to be there to babysit the kiln pretty much throughout the entire firing. Dave programmed the kiln for a 200 degree, four-hour long pre-heat to begin at 6:00 a.m. We planned on getting to the studio a bit after 8:00 a.m. to stop the pre-heat and start the kiln firing.
On the way in, we stopped for breakfast at Flying Star ("power hash" with kale, sweet potatoes, quinoa, mushrooms, and a basted egg, and decaf coffee) and then went and started the kiln. While it was still in the very early stages, we went out to do our shopping.
The first place we went to was Target, where they had exactly zero things we needed. (We did pick up a box of candy for one of the kids and a trash can for Gray Car.) From Target, we went to Toys R Us, where we found a keyboard for Dave's pick. We also picked up some candy for her. After that we stopped at Game Stop and got a gift certificate for my pick. Then we stopped at Staples to look at office chairs since the one I use at the studio is not great and my back ends up killing me after sitting for too long. We didn't find an office chair, but we did pick up a printer for the studio and some paper for the printer.
Our shopping done, we headed back to the studio to do some work. (Well, I worked on studio stuff while Dave worked on his legit job works stuff.)
The following run of work took about seven hours total. I finished the flowers on the skirt and began painting. I added to the rest of the figure on top.
The arms and head are covered to keep them from drying out while I worked on the rest of the figure.
Dave went out to pick up lunch and we paused to eat (Panera: 1/2 Mediterranean veggie sandwich and creamy tomato soup for me and a 1/2 Mediterranean veggie sandwich and 1/2 grilled cheese sandwich for Dave).
Then I went back to work:
I added the flowers to the top of the bodice, front and back, and added the head. I had originally intended to add either boning or seaming to the bodice of the dress, but I decided that the narrow waist was enough. (You can't really tell from this piece, but I fight against detailing work. To me, it seems very daunting or complicated to add a lot of detail, even though I like the look when other artists do it. I guess it's because I catastrophize a lot of things and each detail I add to a piece is another opportunity to do that. Each detail has the potential to wreck the piece rather than making it better. So I fight with that a lot in my head while I'm working.)
The flowers are done primarily with five-petal punches. I have three of them in different sizes. I roll out the clay, punch out the flowers, flatten the petals with my fingers, shape the petals around various tools, put together two sizes to make one flower, carve into the petals to add some texture, then apply the flower to the piece. It's time consuming, but meditative.
In the afternoon, I added the sternum, clavicles, a few ribs and vertebrae.
She's a happy creature, even without hair. (Which I am as of yet undecided about. I also made her a hat with a wide brim, decorated with more flowers, but I'm not sure about the hat either.)
Looking at this photograph of the face, I think her teeth need a bit more definition and the eyebrows need to be taken down a bit so that they're more suggestion than actual brow. I also want to carve into her face, some flourishes and flowers and such. Then I'll have to decide what to do with and how to build the rest of the arms and hands. Then I'll have to finish painting her. There's still a lot of work to be done, but I think she'll be finished enough for a first firing by the end of next weekend. (Of course, it will take another week or two beyond that to dry.)
In the evening, we took Crunch for his walk and then had pizza for dinner with Judi and Paul. Dave stopped the kiln and buttoned it up. We headed home and started to bring back our stuff from Kelly and Kevin's where we've been house- and dog-sitting. Dave stayed next door to practice his clarinet for a bit, but my back was killing me from sitting and working for so long, so I changed into my pajamas and got into bed. I made it through half an episode of Weeds on Netflix before I was out like a light.
Tomorrow I'll wrap the gifts and we'll drop them off on the way to the studio to open the kiln.
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