How I make a Dolphin Part Deux

      My sculptures in clay are made in many steps that take up to 3 weeks, depending on humidity.  After being made (part one), a sculpture will be put aside until it's dry enough to decant it from its props and carve the extra bits that need trimming.  Those bits occur because gravity pulls down the clay before it's actually dry. Then , I carve more detail into the piece.  And then I put it aside to dry more. And then carve it a little more.  When I'm very sure that there is no liquid left in the clay then it goes into the kiln.

      If I was wrong on that part , and there was liquid left and I fired too fast , BIG explosions !! Not good.  At all.  So I try to avoid that at all costs, not just because it's messy but also because it's expensive in that it can damage a kiln.  I don't think I've done it in the last decade but I remember it well. So occasionally, just to make absolutely sure that they're dry, I've dried pieces under my woodstove, on my porch steps, wherever it's hot and reasonably safe from cats, dogs possums, raccoons, snakes etc. The difference between a piece I've made getting all the way to sale means a clay sculpture making it through all the stages , the making , the drying, the carving, the drying again, and the 1st firing also known as the bisque firing.  And then the next stage , the glazing.

        Part Three coming up in a few days !  Unless something goes horribly wrong !  Who Knows !

Liz