Birds, Birds, Birds and a Bunny

Life after Penland, at least for me, has required a period of adjustment. When you get used to spending every waking minute working with clay, its difficult to return to the more piecemeal approach of "fitting in" time to create. I've spent a lot of time studying the Susan Halls piece I bought at the Session 6 auction. "Bully Boy Rabbit" was one of Susan's demo pieces.

Like the rest of her pieces, "Bully" was made with paper clay. Brushed with white terra sig, he was raku fired, then strategically placed in sawdust to achieve his unique coloration. I really love the method...the natural, unglazed look of it. Hopefully, I'll be able to explore this further in the weeks to come.

For the moment, however, my clay time is all about birds. They're everywhere. Birds that will be high-fired are awaiting a ^06 bisque.

Birds to be barrel-fired (hard burnished or coated with terra sig) are awaiting a ^010 bisque.

And then there are the newly glazed birds, waiting for the gas kiln to fire.

I have birds drying on bats atop my washer. I have birds drying on bats atop my stove. And I have birds on the brain, new ideas for birds I plan to make for 5 upcoming sales (which is why I'm making so many birds in the first place.) The first is this Saturday Mount Holly Autumn On Main If you're in the neighborhood I hope you'll stop by & say hi.