New tools

A couple new tools, just for the current project: a fish scaler and a sucker punch!

The scale roller doesn't work as well as I'd hope: scales are too deep, might be better on a bigger fish. On a little mermaid, the imprint is both rough and insufficiently detailed. Oh well, best I can do. The punch works perfectly, though, can make various sizes of sucker depending on how hard it's pushed and how much I rock it about.

The littlest

I really want my octopus' companion to be little: a toddler mermaid, plump and chubby. I made the octo out of G-Mix, a grogged, porcellanous stoneware, lighter than my usual clay and less likely to fire brown. I'll use sponge to dab on rutile, red and orange stain, maybe some iron oxide to get the look of a giant Pacific octopus.

I also want some brighter color on my mermaid companion, so I make her out of porcelain, a very white clay that will take stains well. Since she's so small, I don't bother to roll slabs. Her lower body and torso are pinch pots, joined to make a hollow form. Arms are modeled solid, but the upper arm is pierced to the elbow afterward with a bamboo chopstick. The head is modeled hollow over a blunt sculpting tool, and a lot of the features formed with custom-made bamboo skewer tools. As usual, I open holes into the torso before attaching arms and head, to end up with a continuous hollow form.

A day later, after she's firm enough to handle without messing up the details, I carefully bore a vent into the back of her head, hidden by her hair, to help with drying. My smallest hole maker is an umbrella rib, ground sharp.



I'm gonna call the piece Best Friends.