About ten of us showed up and we started with hands and feet. Hannah (nervously at first, but more confidently as we went on) demonstrated a couple of ways to make each. After about an hour of demos, she handed out clay (white stonewear) and we tried it on our own.

That is my first attempt at a foot. And this is my first attempt at a hand:

Never having done it before, I was surprised by a few things. One is that it's easier to sculpt a hand or foot than it is to draw one. I wasn't expecting that at all. It turns out, too, that I'm perfectly happy with the suggestion of the thing I'm trying to sculpt; I don't need to have it be perfectly lifelike. (If I wanted perfectly lifelike, I'd just pull out the alginate make a cast.)
Another thing I noticed--and this made me very happy--is that my very dominant right hand made a very lovely portrait of my left hand. Hilarious.
I am pretty excited to try more.
Cells, Continued
The glazing, as always, continues.

This is a look into the first cell with the nucleus in place. It looks like it's going to be a white mess, but there are (at least) fourteen different glazes in there, including yellow, red, coral, purple, green and blue--lots and lots of blue. Some of the pieces, like the little round nucleolus in there) will be bare clay (with an iron oxide wash to highlight the texture), some of the pieces will be only partially glazed, partly for textural contrast, partly for the joy of discovering the colorful underside to an apparently monochromatic piece.
I also loaded the second cell into a bisque kiln this afternoon along with lots of other little bits and pieces that will go into the cells, either glazed in or fired separately and arranged after the final firing (so you can take parts out and rearrange them like you would miniature furniture in a dollhouse).
I like working that way, building a big frame (in this case the cell membrane) then making hundreds of little parts that may or may not be included. That way after everything is bisque fired, I can lay it all out and start mixing and matching while I glaze. Some pieces were specifically intended to go into each cell, but some pieces are one offs that may or may not fit.
3 comments:
good job on hands and feet! always a challenge, no? no matter how many times I do it.... xo
Awesome:)
They are challenging. I can't wait to do more!
:)
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