Some assembly required

[offcntr]

Wake up early and eager, the opposite of yesterday. Check in on the studio before breakfast, turn on the heat: pieces are perfect.

I start detailing the legs and feet. (For the record: Indian elephants have five toes in front, four in the back. African: four and three. Thought you'd like to know.)

After limbs are back on their pillow, I flip over torso parts, one at a time onto a wadded up t-shirt. I'm a little worried whether the slab I rolled is thick enough to hold its shape in firing, so I add some reinforcements, ribs of slab on the top and bottom curves. Next, I score, slip and add a flange all around the inside of the edge of the back section, score and slip the front, and spend a good while making sure it all stays together. The neck is big enough that I can, with a little care, fit my hand inside. This way I can support the clay while I push, pinch, squeeze and scrape the seams shut on the outside.

I know the sections will fit together, because I pencilled the circumference of the back section onto the drywall section I was working on, and then used the line as template to build the front. Points for clever…

Once the torso is assembled, it's time to add legs. I trim out a lot of clay with a wire harp tool--like a cheese slicer without the roller--mostly along the underarms, although also outside along the hip and shoulder lines. I start with right rear, then front, left side same order. I eyeball the first two legs carefully to be sure they're mounted to the same length. With three legs attached, I can stand it up, and position the fourth leg properly. If it does wobble, I can pinch one leg a little longer, bend it out or in slightly, or in extreme cases, file down the sole a little.

Before I attach a leg, I punch a hole through the torso, so air can freely circulate through the body. Trapped air bubbles don't necessarily make something explode. Trapped moisture in those air bubbles does.

Because the neck is still open, I can push clay from the body into the hip or shoulder seams. The clay is also flexible enough that I can re-shape from the inside, plumping out the buttocks and building up the shoulders without adding extra clay.


Once the legs are all joined, I pop on the tail, spray a little water around the neck hole and stuff a plastic produce bag in to keep it moist, then break for lunch. It's been a productive morning.