Octopodiatry
Feb. 9th, 2020 11:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offcntrIf forewarned is forearmed, am I about to be eight-warned?
Just sayin'
I'm feeling a little tentative about tentacles today, getting the sense that if I attach them to the underside of my critter, the whole thing will grow so large that it'll be impossible to safely load into the kiln. I put off thinking about it while I roll out more slabs and cycle down to the Farmer's Market (potatoes, Red Russian kale, filberts, potato rolls and three kinds of apples).
After lunch, I attack the problem of tentacles. I have just enough textured slab left to make one. I fasten it into a long cone, smoothing the join and stamping it with a special suction cup tool I made last month. Then I wet the end and pull it like a handle, stretching out the taper until it's narrow enough (and soft enough) to turn into a spiral. Dry off the slip and re-stamp/re-texture where necessary. Judging from the length and diameter, it'll work better if I attach it to the top of the skirt, rather than coming up from beneath, so I position it, trace the outline, and number both on the skirt and inside the arm.
Repeat eight times.
Now I need to figure out how to deal with the bottom. I suppose I could just run a flat slab across and call it good, but where's the fun in that? All the way back to my cartooning days, I liked to reward the careful viewer with extra details. Which means, at the very least, I gotta put a beak down there. Maybe more suction cups. Oh heck, I'll figure it out as I go.
First, though, I trim off the extra clay and hardened edges from the skirt, swooping in a little between tentacles. Flip the bottom slab over and mark where to cut to match the top. We got pears from Harry & David for Christmas again this year (Thanks, Maggie!), so I have all kinds of weird slabs of foam, one of which, set into a plastic shoebox, is the perfect support for an inverted invertebrate.
I take a little time to smooth the seams, reinforce a few. I don't want the bottom to collapse as I work on it, so I roll out a slab from stiff scraps, cut and form it into a cylinder, and join it down at the base of the head, extending up. Because I need to have air freely circulating through for even drying, I cut three holes, space equidistant around the side of the cylinder. I eyeball and trim the top level, pinch some flutes out to match where the tentacles will attach, then bring my base slab over, score and slip all the way around the perimeter, and join it to the top.
(At this point, I must admit, I was having too much fun, and totally forgot to take pictures.) I tucked the beak down into the middle, stamped radiating rows of suckers, added some muscle attachments just because I liked how they looked.
And ended up with this.
This is really getting cool.
Just sayin'
I'm feeling a little tentative about tentacles today, getting the sense that if I attach them to the underside of my critter, the whole thing will grow so large that it'll be impossible to safely load into the kiln. I put off thinking about it while I roll out more slabs and cycle down to the Farmer's Market (potatoes, Red Russian kale, filberts, potato rolls and three kinds of apples).
After lunch, I attack the problem of tentacles. I have just enough textured slab left to make one. I fasten it into a long cone, smoothing the join and stamping it with a special suction cup tool I made last month. Then I wet the end and pull it like a handle, stretching out the taper until it's narrow enough (and soft enough) to turn into a spiral. Dry off the slip and re-stamp/re-texture where necessary. Judging from the length and diameter, it'll work better if I attach it to the top of the skirt, rather than coming up from beneath, so I position it, trace the outline, and number both on the skirt and inside the arm.
Repeat eight times.
Now I need to figure out how to deal with the bottom. I suppose I could just run a flat slab across and call it good, but where's the fun in that? All the way back to my cartooning days, I liked to reward the careful viewer with extra details. Which means, at the very least, I gotta put a beak down there. Maybe more suction cups. Oh heck, I'll figure it out as I go.
First, though, I trim off the extra clay and hardened edges from the skirt, swooping in a little between tentacles. Flip the bottom slab over and mark where to cut to match the top. We got pears from Harry & David for Christmas again this year (Thanks, Maggie!), so I have all kinds of weird slabs of foam, one of which, set into a plastic shoebox, is the perfect support for an inverted invertebrate.
I take a little time to smooth the seams, reinforce a few. I don't want the bottom to collapse as I work on it, so I roll out a slab from stiff scraps, cut and form it into a cylinder, and join it down at the base of the head, extending up. Because I need to have air freely circulating through for even drying, I cut three holes, space equidistant around the side of the cylinder. I eyeball and trim the top level, pinch some flutes out to match where the tentacles will attach, then bring my base slab over, score and slip all the way around the perimeter, and join it to the top.
(At this point, I must admit, I was having too much fun, and totally forgot to take pictures.) I tucked the beak down into the middle, stamped radiating rows of suckers, added some muscle attachments just because I liked how they looked.
And ended up with this.
This is really getting cool.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-09 10:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-02-10 06:53 am (UTC)