Unloading a kiln of newly glazed work is really fun. I recently unloaded a group of new dresses and vases and spent yesterday twisting copper and brass wire onto the necks and backs of them, adding pretty beads, and hanging them on the gallery wall for display. Rearranging, stepping back, playing house.
On Friday, after a visitor stopped in briefly and promised to return, my daughter excused herself hurriedly to preheat the oven for a group of her polymer clay creations and to make her display more attractive.
Her "Petite Treats" are beautiful! See the nachos, cakes, pancakes:
Playing "dress-up" is part of the fun of making these clay dresses. Lily in Water, (l) about 9" high, is a living Ophelia, a dream of being a water-plant or a mermaid. Scheherazade, (r) 17" high, is a talented story-teller. Winged Victory, (c) 18" high, isn't victorious in the way of clashing weapons or fallen dead; she's just learned to fly.
Last summer at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, I took a class in making clay instruments with the wonderful Brian Ransom. Just yesterday, this bell was completed with the addition of a wooden knocker, brass wire, and antique beads and buttons. It sounds beautiful. The design was one I found in Brian's book, an ancient Indian bell shape which reminds me of the brass bells I used to buy at "World Bazaar" It was stamped with clay stamps I've made over the years, painted with terra sigillata and salt-fired. About 4" high.
