I have to admit, I am thrilled with the way this piece turned out! The depth of color and the glaze finish are impressive. Will I ever be able to duplicate it? Hmm. That’s a good question. Take a high-fire clay body, a low-fire raku glaze, velvet underglazes and a clear top coat… then fire in oxidation with a load of greenware, cross my fingers and see what happens.

Yay for fish! This guy will hang on my kiln house for years to come, I hope. I love it when an experiment turns out.

Another piece that came out of the paperclay workshop was this fish. I have long wanted to make a kiln fish - believed to bring good luck to firings, the fish is hung somewhere on the kiln house. I think it’s usually hung near the opening of a traditional wood-fired kiln. For mine, I’d like to hang the fish on the inside of the kiln house, right next to the kiln.

Day 1: First, I made the armature by bending medium-gauge steel wire and sticking the ends into wet paperclay disks. I also stuck some straight pieces for the tail. The armature provides a frame for the rest of the sculpture to be built onto. In this case, the back of the fish will be flat, so the armature only needs to be on the top half. I allowed this to dry in the sun for a couple of hours.

Next, I laid slabs over the armature to create the basic form for the fish. The slabs were a little bit saggy between the wires, so I made some clay supports and put them inside the fish.

I shaped the slabs and blended them together using water and my fingers. Once I had the basic shape, I let the form sit overnight. This allowed it to firm up enough so I could push on it without distorting the shape.

Day 2: The next step was to add some detail. I put on the gill, lips and eye. At this point the form was nicely firm so I was able to work without compromising the structure. I also carved out part of the mouth so it appears to be a hole like it’s supposed to be.

Now the fun part. I added scales by making tiny balls of paperclay, then squashing them onto the form. I started at the tail and worked my way forward. I’m not sure how many scales I put onto the fish - it seemed like hundreds! I just kept going and would give my hands a break when they’d get tired.

I started to put scales on the face and cheeks, then changed my mind and removed them. Scaling complete, I added detail to the tail and put his fins on.

The addition of the dorsal fin, and the fish is complete. I let him sit overnight to firm up really well before handling any further.

Day 3:  By the next morning, the fish was stiff enough to handle. I removed him from his board and glazed with three coats: First, a layer of copper raku glaze, next a variety of cone 04 Amaco velvet underglazes (pictured here), and finally, a layer of cone 04 clear glaze. You might be thinking this is a really strange glaze combination, and you’d be right! The initial idea was to raku fire the fish, but he was too heavy and too big to fit into the raku firing. Thinking this was a low fire paperclay, I decided to put a low-fire raku glaze and fire it at home to see how it turned out. Then we discovered that the clay was actually high-fire, cone 10 clay! By that time, the fish was already coated with the 04 raku glaze. So, I decided to carry on with the colors and clear top-coat, and to fire him at home with the next bisque firing. What’s the worst that can happen? So, the fish is in the kiln as I write this, and my next post will feature a picture of the results. Happy swimming, little fishie! To give a sense of scale, pre-fire, the fish was about fourteen inches long.

I attended a fantastic paperclay scuplture workshop this past weekend. It took place in Sedona, Arizona - a lovely red rock town located about 30 miles south of Flagstaff, at the Sedona Arts Center. The workshop was taught by internationally acclaimed artist Lorri Acott-Fowler. I first met Lorri a year ago at another paperclay workshop, where we were both attendees and I was lucky enough to land at the table with she and her father.

I am typically not a sculptor (although I’d like to be), but I love trying my hand at new things, and I love paperclay. It’s amazing stuff - simply clay with paper fibers mixed in, with amazing strength and behavior that is quite different from normal clay. You can stick dry to wet, and continue building on a piece without the worry of cracks or overdrying.

Lorri is known for her abstracted human forms. She taught us her method for making figures, which includes a large metal spike or rebar in the legs. Here is a tiny woman that I made, using Lorri’s technique for the armature. This piece is cold-finished, meaning it is not fired. It is painted with acrylics and will be left in the green stage. That’s another amazing thing about paperclay - it is much stronger in the green stage than traditional clay.

Because my lady is only about five inches tall, I used steel wire in her legs, as shown below. Once the piece was dried stiff, I built the rest of the figure onto it, allowing for drying stages when needed.

The pictures are a bit fuzzy, but if you look at the larger versions, you can see the paper fibers sticking out of the clay. In a fired piece, the paper simply burns out, leaving clay behind. In a painted piece, the fibers are matted down by the clay and are not apparent in the finished piece.

I also made a kiln fish at the workshop. I’ll talk about that in my next post.

I enjoyed my long weekend, and got a lot done. I have been working with larger chunks of clay, trying to figure out how much is needed for different sized plates, bowls and platters. I also had fun making a few frog dishes. I sell these as ice cream dishes because they end up being the perfect size for a scoop or two, and the frog sits on a handle that helps keep your hand from freezing. I just love their perpetual smiles!

I just finished loading the kiln for a bisque firing. I’ll candle it overnight and will complete the firing by early afternoon tomorrow. Here’s the kiln god for this firing. I planned to make a troll, but he turned out more like a dwarf with a Roman nose. I put more time into him than I intended to! He stands about six inches tall.

Onward!