#before firing

[a-g-landers]

[engagemythrusters]

don't get me wrong: the great pottery throwdown is one of my favourite shows ever. HOWEVER it is absolutely a show for non-ceramicists.

[kimartist]

MONDO MUNCH by kimartist Ceramic, before firing

Photo credit goes to Yen-Ting Chiu.

My very first hand-built (coiled) cat sculpture! You can’t tell by the pic, but Mr. Munch turned out way bigger than expected (12"+) - a typical beginner’s mistake, apparently. This was harder than I thought it would be - it’s not like chiseling, or carving where you start with a chunk of something & go in. No, you start from the very bottom with a rope of clay & twirl it round & round building upward, which makes it very easy to get visually “lost” & forget where all your body parts are supposed to go - & of course the clay is trying to dry out on you the entire time & by the time it all starts to pull together it’s too late to make any major changes on the rest. So this was a 6-hour project all together & I somehow lost the ruff around Mr. Munch’s face (the typical Maine coon poofiness) & I was so tired by the time I got to the ears (the last part) that I just stuck them on there, not caring too much if they looked anatomically correct. For some reason, the colors look fairly bold in the photo, but in *real life* they look like similar shades of gray & it’s hard to tell what you’ve done (fingers crossed for the firing!)