Jurassical

So I pick the hottest day of the spring to begin my sculpture project, which means it's difficult to work by afternoon, but the bits I did finish stiffened up nicely. I'll try to assemble a bit more in the morning, when it's cool, but here's today's progress. Pretty good, for a start, I think.

In the past, I've rolled out the clay slabs wet, then had to wait for them to firm up before I could begin. This time, I took a page from my pottery experiences. I cut two bags of clay into quarters lengthwise last night, spread them out like teepee poles and left them uncovered until morning. Wedged them up this morning, rolled my slabs and was pretty much ready to start. I'll have to remember that trick.

I pre-textured the slabs with my new roller tools, then formed a torso and set it on end to stiffen up. Once it did, I laid it on its side and attached the first tail segment.

I made the head from a smaller bit of slab, added a lower jaw, some texture and detailing, and finished with colored porcelain eyes, tongue and teeth. Wicked!

Legs were made in sections: first the thighs, then the drumsticks, then the legs and feet. I left these to dry until evening before I assembled them.

Even then, I left them off of the body until tomorrow, though I did line up the right leg against the torso to see how it looked.

Tomorrow's gonna be pretty wild...