BAMBI (OR BAMBETTE) RETURNS... (THE STORY VERSION)

Quite a while ago, I had a picture of this fawn on my blog, bedded in the thicket next to my house. I have thought of the encounter often. So..."What about it??" you say... well here's my story. Once upon a time, I built a wood-kiln. Not a huge one, but one I could fire by myself.  I have been spending all of my "clay time" making pottery to fill this kiln so I can learn how to fire a wood-kiln. I now have fifteen firings under my belt and I feel pretty confident that I have a good grasp on it. I have to admit that I didn't spend as much time on some of the work as I would have liked to, but I didn't want to waste "clay time" on a poor firing. Understandable. I remember not being able to get past cone nine until after my third firing. I can now get to twelve in no time... I actually hold the kiln back now for the results I want. So, what does this have to do with the fawn!!?? Talk about dragging it on and on ... So, now that I am confident with the kiln, I have been putting more time into the pieces. I was a sculpture minor in college and have missed sculpting and now I have been doing more sculptural pieces for the next firing. I have sculpted objects on top of pottery, sculptures all by themselves and I just finished a serving dish with a fawn bedded inbetween the logs on top of it. I am working with a fettling knife in the first picture, carving details in a log.

I want the end of the log to look old and weathered...

And have the bark peeling away... and a good shape for a handle.

Add a few shale/limestone rocks like there is poking though the forest floor up in my woods...

A bed of leaves to keep dry on... Bambi has returned, just in clay form.

I also made some casseroles with a simpler fawn, this particular one is a mule deer fawn...

So... looks like I'm starting to get my sculpture "fix" now, and it looks like the snow is melting some.  I've had enough winter. There was three feet of snow out there just one week ago! Closed all the schools in the area.

Guess what I was doing? ... besides the driveway...

Looking forward to firing soon. I have enough for a kiln full now, just need to melt some snow.

And, I have some more teapots, couple with the birds I've been seeing at the feeder every day...

THE END

I SLIPPED.......

 I slipped .... in more ways than one. I slipped into overdrive over the holiday season. Glad that's past. Busy with shows, the usual - set 'em up, work some hours, take 'em down, put away. I slipped some wood into a now empty bedroom and "arrainged them" into a studio for Mary Ann's growing bead and jewelry business. Here are the results before she started and after two hours of breaking it in. Glad she likes it.

 I slipped back into some throwing again, made a few boards of teaware, mugs and tumblers (my boards are 18" x 24"... worth mentioning as I know a lot of potters think of a board as 6" wide by 24" or more long.) 

I slipped a peek out the studio window at my kiln, as it patiently waits for me to fill it. Looks nice, even in the winter.

And I slipped some molds I picked up at an estate sale and I have been experimenting with some small molds of animals. I slab built the cart to go with them (whatever they are now) and temporarily secured the pieces with some bead wires from my wife's new shop. I did some research about making a slip from your own clay body and after a bit of a learning curve, I got it straight. Get the specific gravity right, then add sodium silicate/Darvan to make it pour well. I've always wanted to try adding some slip cast elements to my thrown and altered work.  I have wanted to do some sculptural work for a long time (my minor in college) and have some ideas that I am going to put in motion.

Now I won't mention anything about going down to the studio and putting on Jimmy Buffett's song "Slip Sliding Away..." but I will mention the winter roads get really slippery when it hits -14* like it did on Monday and I was slipping and sliding on my 40 minute commute to work ... 

LMAO!!!    I slipped again!!  Did I say Jimmy Buffett's song??? I meant Paul Simon!! I think my oldies recollection skills need sharpening! Hope I don't slip and cut myself while sharpening...