Friday, July 29, 2011

To hot for handbuilding

I have this antique wooden doll and for the longest time I have wanted to make a clay sculpture of it. Of course I would pick one of the hottest days of the month. I was so obsessed with making her that I didn't really notice the heat, except that she was drying faster than I could get her made. She is coil built, and even though I kept spraying her with water, the face and hands got dry before I could really finish them, so there are some things that aren't exactly the way I want them, but I like her and will try again when it isn't so hot, if that day ever comes. I'm not that great at sculpture, but I like doing it, and should do more so I could get better.
Her texture sort of matches the texture I am putting on my barns. I even made some trays with that texture. Seems that every thing I am making right now looks like old wood.
Here are the shelves I put up the other day when it was 100 degrees. I really can't stand working in this heat, but what are you going to do, things have to get done and this heat doesn't look like it is going to let up. I really need to fire my kiln, but I have some concerns about the heat and dry weather and the closeness of my shed to the heat source. Plus, I'm not that into being near a kiln blazing at 1900 degrees. Where IS that ice and snow I was firing in not so long ago!

14 comments:

Unknown said...

Love it Tracey! she's fantastic.
...I wish we could get a decent run of heat over here.
Sounds like you've got some to spare.

Dennis Allen said...

Fire a Kiln? Just put the pots in your car, add a couple of cone packs and park in the sun.

cookingwithgas said...

LOL Dennis.....

Anna M. Branner said...

I agree with Dennis, a whole different experiment then the egg on the manhole cover!

You sure filled those new shelves up fast....and the doll is really wonderful. Makes me think of those fantastic female figureheads on old sailing ships....

Linda Fahey said...

Tracey - It's fantastic! I'm sorry, but living in the constant state of fog and mist we've had; I'm having a hard time getting the heat thing ;-)

great piece!

just jody said...

Love it....would still like to see a rabbit weather vane on a barn!

Tracey Broome said...

Hey Scott, thanks and let's switch weather for awhile! We would love some rain. Dennis, you need to be doing a stand up act at a comedy club somewhere, seriously! Anna and Linda I love the idea of sailing ship figureheads and rabbit weathervanes, gotta get the sketchbook out again! I have been wondering what this figure reminds me of, and it is exactly a ship's figurehead isn't it! I have thought to name her Ahab's Wife, since I'm reading that book right now...

ang design said...

i have the same concerns about firing in the heat... don't know if it really matters though :P

Trish said...

She is beautiful, Tracey.looking forward to see what you do with this work idea. :)
..good for you for working in the heat!..wish I could send you some rain from here. :)..drying of my clay work is taking forever!..
..keep cool. T.

Patricia Griffin Ceramics said...

wow, am impressed by your shelves... You're inspiring me to tackle that in my own studio. The doll is really interesting. Actually ties in with your nautical-themed work, if you take it in the direction of Anna's comment about the "fantastic female figureheads on old sailing ships." Interesting.

Tracey Broome said...

Hey Ang, I don't know either, but the wood above my kiln seems terribly dry, yes Trish send some rain! Hey Patricia, the shelves were very easy to put up and cheap. I went to Lowes and bought three of the metal strips the brackets fit into, 9 brackets and used 3 shelves I already had all around $60. I took me less than an hour to put them up. The most time consuming part was moving things so I could put them up and then moving everything back in place. I have space to add more shelves and I like that they are adjustable.

Bert said...

My former clay instructor makes teapots with a texture that looks like limbs from a tree. Here is a link to his site:

http://jfserrano.com/gallery.html

The ones shown here are some of his early attempts. While not exactly the weathered wood texture your doing, I thought you might find it interesting.

Tracey Broome said...

Hey Bert, thanks for the link. I think I have seen these on posters before, really nice!

SUSAN WELLS said...

Dudettee! Rockin' Girl Doll!!! Did you just hop in the the HOV lane or what! (you can tell i just came down the that nasty eastern corridor from VT) I hope you see this as a good new direction cause I wanna see more:)