These guys will be on sale at the Seaward Park Spring sale
June 7th 8th and 9th
at the Seward Park Clay Studio.
Opening Friday, 7th 6:30-9:30pm
(suggested donation $5 for beverages)
or come browsing / shopping on Saturday, & Sunday -
there will be some really great pieces there too
(its not just a yeti show)
there will be one of a kind cups, plates, bowls
but also great sculture...
from politically driven sculpture stuff to quirky mushrooms,
and heads that just make you laugh.
I love the development process with these guys...
above on the left is so full of promise
there's a shape taking form
but it is still very much just a chunk of clay.
I sometimes think of stopping here.
What would you think of a half a body if you encountered it fired & finished?
The possibilities of what's next
and also, that terracotta looks very much like chocolate
at this plastic clay stage.
So then he became the yeti in the middle above.
But he wasn't doing it for me.
I thought about him a lot (and we had dinner together)
& I realized he was the wrong size.
He's bigger than the brown yeti's -
but as, was too small to be one of the white ones
so I heard his plea "I wish I was a little bit taller"
(I might even make him a baller)...
and tonight he had kitchen table surgery for leg extensions
he's seems to have taken well & is recovering under pastic wrap. Photo on the right, immediately after surgery.
(apologies for the lighting) its not ideal.
and now to add his fur...
Mr Belly is hard to photograph
he's had a stomach reduction since you first met him
and as you can see he's turned white.
& grown an outie bellybutton too.
He's unfired as yet, drying slowly
(thank you Seattle rain)
with a thick textured layer of white art slip for fur.
I'm wondering if there's shouldn't be a section here on
the life, aging and reproductive process of yetis
there's been lots of discussion around the studio.
My test 'tiles' came out the kiln.
and we have 2 winners:
the mahogany underglaze, on a wet piece
(top right) is warm and soft to touch
and has lovely texture and depth.
and the white casting slip on a wet piece
(bottom right) has nice texture and warmth too.
This needs more careful application...
as you can see red smears in this test
as the brush picked up the terracotta after a while
(the reddish hue towards the middle seam).
There was also a little cracking in the casting slip
(hard to see here) which I think would be due to being fired
when the clay was still wet.
Anyway, so the little fellas are going to be mahogany.
(Summer Yetis? or just young ones?)
and the 2 big ones (yes, there's another one you've not seen yet)
are going to be white slip.
I'm really enjoying working the texture with the slip
its very satisfying how its building up.
photos by the end of the week, before I set them aside to dry for final fire.
Yeti? Big Foot? Wookie? Summer Yetti? Sasquatch?
Yetis are white, they are cold weather creatures
that are able to hide in the snow & stay warm in the cold
with thick heavy white (or grey) fur.
These fella's are made in terracotta a deep red clay
so I'd have to cover that up to make them white
and I'm a believer in material integrity
so unless its an interesting effect,
adding a depth to the white with hints of terracotta showing through
I think I'll need to accept they aren't yetis after all
and go dark with their fur: leveraging the depth of the red
not hiding it.
lets see how the test tiles turn out
& we'll go from there.
One of the things you do working in clay, is test tiles
to see how your surface, and clay body will react to decoration...
(glaze, underglaze, and coloured slip)
before you glaze the pieces you've been working hard on.
Below are today's test tiles - to see how I'll glaze my yeti's.
they are numbered on the back,
but here are my notes & unfired matching visual.
# 1 (botton right)
leather hard terracotta with white & black slip applied by paintbrush on top of 'fur' scratches
# 2 (bottom left)
wet terracotta black and white underglaze by brush, 'fur' marks on top of underglaze.
3 (top left)
leather hard terracotta with 'fur' scratches underglaze white and underglaze black applied by brush in top.
4 (top right)
Wet clay. Bump away from me: left side scratched then underglaze. Right side underglaze then scratched. Mahogany brown underglaze.
This class, I decided to tie it all together
& I started making a larger yeti,
using the pinch pot technique
and I'm going to make a rose for him to hold too.
I'm now at 4 mini yetis...
but think eventually there needs to be an odd number.
my roses came out the kiln too.
I was so happy about my yeti I went back this week
on Thursday, and worked on him some more
& made him some friends too.
One of my new friends in the studio
told me about
the bigfoot series by Graham Roumieu
they look hilarious. (my copy is on order from Amazon)
Anyway, when I visited the studio next,
this note was waiting for me.
I'm not sure if I'm more excited to have evoked a reaction,
or to have made a friend.
I really had no love for my two vessels...
and created a third to take another crack at.
I felt my 'stripes' were a way of avoiding the surface issue
and really, if I'm here to do what I'm not used to
I should embrace the challenge.
I took a 3 leafed shamrock I'd found outside the studio
and used it as a random and repeating pattern
I let my carving marks show, and I went for it.
and wow, #3 - is awful!
When the instructor left for the day,
I started my own project... I made a yeti.
I have a thing for yeti's -
anyway, i like him so much, when it was time to go
I brought him home with to finish.
