It had been a long time since the last time I had worked with clay at all. Other than the several ceramics classes I’d taken in 7th and 8th grade, I had not touched clay except for one project in high school; so, when a fellow artist, Rosanna Tygret, invited me to do some sculpting with her I wasn’t sure how well I would do at it.
This was my first attempt. It is a little fairy house on a hill, with a flower petal spiral staircase leading to it. Since Rosanna also has a really cool tool which makes really thin hairlike clay spaghetti, I decided to try it out and make a little fairy to go with the house. The fairy did not turn out as well as I’d like (I got the clay way to wet when trying to get it through the extruder), but the house on a hill is sure cute. Not bad at all for not having handled clay in almost 20 years. (Yikes that makes me feel old!)
This little set of sculptures started out with a squarish hard dry chunk of clay. I really didn’t have a plan at first, but just started out carving some exploratory lines down the sides. Since this reminded me of a tree trunk, I went with that and made a hollow tree stump with a spiral staircase leading down to a little doorway. Also, part of the set is a little butterfly that can be perched on the top of the stump, and a little old gnome that can be leaned up against the stump reading his book. The bottom of the stump is even etched with a tree leaf pattern.
This set isn’t finished yet. So far I have a Christmas tree growing out of a rock, a baby Jesus in a manger, an old balding gnome who has removed his hat to kneel worshiping at the side of the manger, and a little staircase. When it’s finished there will be several other gnomes in the act of decorating the tree, detangling the lights, etc–in complete oblivion to the Christ child.
I am really looking forward to getting these fired and painted. 
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October 4, 2011 at 9:52 pm
lia
Boy, you’re a lot more ambitious than I’d be with that medium. Are you going to glaze them, too?
October 5, 2011 at 12:44 am
dlmtleArt
I am going to paint them, yes. My friend who does a lot more sculptures than i do, just uses acrylics to paint hers once they’ve been fired. I’d like to try that since it sounds easier than glazing.