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Legging it
Feb. 19th, 2017 06:33 pmI read a lot of fantasy and science fiction, going back all the way to Robert Heinlein's Rocket Ship Galileo in the second grade. Lately, it's been running about three urban fantasies to every one SF, mostly because space battles have come to dominate the genre, and I'd rather not read gun porn.
So it happened that I had three fantasies in my suitcase last spring to read in the hotel room during Ceramic Showcase. And every one of them involved Baba Yaga, the witch of Russian folklore, who rides a flying mortar and pestle, lives in a house with chicken legs. As a main character, as the antagonist, as a surprise reveal of an incidental character around chapter 30. One of them was particularly fun: Baba Yaga's Assistant, by Marika McCoola. I liked the idea of a brave little girl self-inserting into the Baba Yaga story, thought it might be fun to play with the idea in sculpture.
Of course, I never have time to do sculpture in summer. Too many shows, too many commitments, too much pottery. And, frankly, things dry too fast. Winter's the time for sculpture, after I've recovered from Holiday Market, but before I start getting ready for Saturday Market in April. When the studio is cool and damp overnight, and I can lay out slabs and leave them uncovered to cut and join like hardwood the next day. And I can drape parts in plastic while I make other parts that will join with them by the end of the week, and not have them pull apart from differing rates of drying and shrinkage.
I'm actually not sure I would have gotten to this piece, even so, except that one of my favorite authors, Ursula Vernon, released a fantasy in serial form at the end of this year, a portal fantasy featuring a little girl named Summer and a world called Orcus. And it starts with her seeing Baba Yaga's house, picking it's way down the alley past her back gate on its chicken legs.
Yeah, chicken legs. Like in the picture, yesterday.
More tomorrow.
So it happened that I had three fantasies in my suitcase last spring to read in the hotel room during Ceramic Showcase. And every one of them involved Baba Yaga, the witch of Russian folklore, who rides a flying mortar and pestle, lives in a house with chicken legs. As a main character, as the antagonist, as a surprise reveal of an incidental character around chapter 30. One of them was particularly fun: Baba Yaga's Assistant, by Marika McCoola. I liked the idea of a brave little girl self-inserting into the Baba Yaga story, thought it might be fun to play with the idea in sculpture.
Of course, I never have time to do sculpture in summer. Too many shows, too many commitments, too much pottery. And, frankly, things dry too fast. Winter's the time for sculpture, after I've recovered from Holiday Market, but before I start getting ready for Saturday Market in April. When the studio is cool and damp overnight, and I can lay out slabs and leave them uncovered to cut and join like hardwood the next day. And I can drape parts in plastic while I make other parts that will join with them by the end of the week, and not have them pull apart from differing rates of drying and shrinkage.
I'm actually not sure I would have gotten to this piece, even so, except that one of my favorite authors, Ursula Vernon, released a fantasy in serial form at the end of this year, a portal fantasy featuring a little girl named Summer and a world called Orcus. And it starts with her seeing Baba Yaga's house, picking it's way down the alley past her back gate on its chicken legs.
Yeah, chicken legs. Like in the picture, yesterday.
More tomorrow.