Tag Archives: animal

Small Herd of Clay Animals

I made these little guys in summer 2019. They are 3-4″ tall. I was experimenting with animal forms. It’s an ongoing exploration.

Here is one fellow:

Another one: (who was left at Bryn Mawr College as an art drop-off)

Clay Animal 8-1912

and this one.

Clay Figurine Animal with blue fleece view #3 8-19 1

Clay Figurine Animal with blue fleece view #2 8-19 2

Clay Figurine Animal with blue fleece view #1 8-19 3

I think I have an orange one, too, but I don’t seem to have a photo. Maybe later on.

Half-Circle Animals #2 – White Clay

I just showed you some of these animals a couple of days ago:

Clay terracotta half circle animals group #2 7-192

After this group, I made a much bigger animal in white low-fire clay. Actually, I made two. The first one taught me something – a larger animal’s body needed some help during the creation process in order to maintain its shape.

Let me explain a little. I cut the circle with an 8″ diameter, cut it in half, and let it set up some so that it was stiff enough to stand up but not too dry to meld the pieces together.

Then I cut a strip for the back. Since the animal was larger, this strip needed to be wider, so that the animal would not be too tall and narrow and tipsy. In my first try, the wider clay strip sagged in the middle and deformed the circular shape. I went so far as to bisque fire the creature, but I could not get happy with the shape. This animal had to go into the trash.

Note: I kept its head, glazed it, and left it as an art-drop off in the park. Never waste anything, I say…

Clay Figurine Triangle Head4

I realized I needed a support for the back piece in order to make the sides and the back work together. I got a styrofoam circle and cut it in half (poorly, but it all worked out with some adjustment…)

Clay large half circle animal WIP 7-19 form view1

I was able to lay the clay strip over the form and have it stiffen into a shape that would fit with the two half-circles so that I could put them all together with losing the shape I wanted.

Fantastic! Here is the animal after the bisque (first) firing:

I then colored the animal with Velvet underglazes, as you have seen with tiles and other figurines:

I’ve got plenty more photos. Let’s take a look:

And some more:

and a close-up of a patterned area:

Clay Figurine Large half-circle creature 8-19 #4 top5

and here the animal says thank you for your attention to me!

Clay Figurine Large half-circle creature 8-19 #4 front6

This animal was made in August 2019,low-fire white clay, Velvet underglazes, fired at cone 06.

Half-Circle Animals #1 – Terracotta

Recently I made some animal figurines incorporating the circle shape.

To make them, I cut a circle shape in the clay and then cut that in half. I then joined the half-circles along the curved edge, added a bottom, legs, and a head. Next thing you know, clay animals. They look like this:

The largest animal’s body is made from about a six inch diameter circle. The clay is quite stiff and held up well to the process. I decided not to put my usual colorful decoration on these creatures as I liked the simplicity of their black and orange scheme.

Made in July 2019, terracotta clay, fired at cone 06, colored with Velvet underglazes. Here are some more photos showing leg styles – I made some with tubular legs and others are formed from slabs.