Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Slow as Drying Mud...

I told myself when I made this blog that I'd post at least every three days. And here, the second post is late already! I had the best weekend tho, so it works. I went on a camping horseback riding weekend with my friend Nikki and her in-laws. Couldn't have had more fun, unless the 6 hour rides had been 8 hours lol. But, when I got home, I managed to pop a bone in my lower back out, and since I'm stuborn or something, took me 3 days to get to the back cracker. So things have been slow.

However, all that borning-ness to say...

I started pouring molds again today, with help from my side kicks of course.
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Because if everyone isn't covered in mud, you're just not doing it right.

I also finished up some other projects. I like to experiment, and tinker, and these were the results of that. I went to a junk store not that long ago, and picked up 6 brand new pitcher molds for $1 each! They are really nice, easy to work with, and are about 4-5 inches tall when they are done. They are great for trying out colors that I'm not sure what color they will fire to be :) I've got close to a dozen done so far. Not sure what I'll do with them, but here's a couple I really liked.

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I haven't done anything with the horses from the previous post, except to fire the pieces. I found that working with the greenware was tricky, at best, and the head of the itching mare was too heavy for just greenware to hold. I'm waiting til my back is behaving again to tinker with them, tho I'm feeling very impatient to wait that long..
But I did work on these two. The first is a little mule, that I was practicing mule pattern on. I think he turned out cute. I love that high gloss look, and the contrast of the white and black. I will be doing a lot of wild mules I think in the future, as I recently bought a bisque mule that I just love, but haven't found "the" pattern for it yet.

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And this, is a Doc Holiday Thoughbred. Rather than call him all that, I just call him Alfred. The DH TB is kind of wonky to start with, so I've been working on building up his butt and shoulders a little bit, and gave him a new mane today. There's something very liberating about the thought "I can always make another one if I don't like this one". Unlike Breyers, where if you don't like the work you've done, you're out $10+, these guys, with mold costs and everything, are only a couple dollars each to make (they get spendy when you start firing them a zillion times with glaze, but that's for another day). Maybe that's why I feel so brave with resculpting them so liberally. Anyway, here's Alfred.

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Obviously, he still needs some cleanup, that's just in the "leather wet" form of greenware. The body itself is fired bisque tho. I tend to squeeze the life out of them when I resculpt, so best to fire the body first with no mane :)
Til next time!

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