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offcntrSo I'm a big fan of author/artist/podcaster Ursula Vernon (aka T. Kingfisher). I've reblogged one of her essays here, and my Best-of-Show-winning sculpture from last year's Ceramic Showcase was based in part on her novel, Summer in Orcus. So this year, as I'm thinking of a new sculpture for Showcase--my last two both sold--I keep coming back to Ursula's writing. Specifically to Harriet Hamsterbone.
Princess Harriet Hamsterbone, if you please. Cursed at christening by an evil fairy, doomed to prick her finger on a hamster wheel at age 12 and fall into an enchanted sleep, she realizes that this means, up until her 12th birthday, that she's invincible. So she takes up cliff diving. Mountain climbing. Fighting ogres and saving dragons from ravening princesses and generally going on adventures with the help of her trusty riding quail, Mumfrey.
You see where I'm going, here?
Here is the beginning of Mumfrey. I decided to make him in two pieces, rather like the house in Baba Yaga, but instead of a flat slab with feet attached, I'm doing a hollow, domed form. The bottom curve will be Mumfrey's belly, the upper, more conical surface will match a reinforced, angled gallery on the bottom of his body. They'll be fired separately, assembled later. Not decided yet whether Harriet will be attached or not. I'm still quailing.
The head is a pinch pot, not unlike the animal masks I've made before. The body is going to be slab work. Here you can see the inner dome, wrapped in tissue paper to aid in separation later, with the ring of slap around it and the beginnings of the breast and tail. Already, the tail is sharper and better shaped, from using stiffened slabs. Only I've run out of ready clay slab, so the whole thing is going under plastic until tomorrow.
Princess Harriet Hamsterbone, if you please. Cursed at christening by an evil fairy, doomed to prick her finger on a hamster wheel at age 12 and fall into an enchanted sleep, she realizes that this means, up until her 12th birthday, that she's invincible. So she takes up cliff diving. Mountain climbing. Fighting ogres and saving dragons from ravening princesses and generally going on adventures with the help of her trusty riding quail, Mumfrey.
You see where I'm going, here?
Here is the beginning of Mumfrey. I decided to make him in two pieces, rather like the house in Baba Yaga, but instead of a flat slab with feet attached, I'm doing a hollow, domed form. The bottom curve will be Mumfrey's belly, the upper, more conical surface will match a reinforced, angled gallery on the bottom of his body. They'll be fired separately, assembled later. Not decided yet whether Harriet will be attached or not. I'm still quailing.
The head is a pinch pot, not unlike the animal masks I've made before. The body is going to be slab work. Here you can see the inner dome, wrapped in tissue paper to aid in separation later, with the ring of slap around it and the beginnings of the breast and tail. Already, the tail is sharper and better shaped, from using stiffened slabs. Only I've run out of ready clay slab, so the whole thing is going under plastic until tomorrow.