Sunday, March 2, 2014

A Druid Owl

 
The little Druid Owl that I sculpted a few weeks ago is now nearly finished.  I don't know if there were any female druids, but I think of her as a she - named Alana. 
 
As always in my (so far) brief glazing career, it was a challenge.  The hard part is imagining what the colors will become once they're fired and then keeping track of what you put where, especially since so many of the unfired colors are so similar to each other.  For example, the black and one of the buffs are both nearly the same color of red.  And, of course, a mix-up of those two colors would be a real problem!
 
I tried to detail the eyes with glaze but it didn't work out as well as I had hoped, so I painted over the glaze in the eyes with acrylic paint, and then added two coats of gloss acrylic varnish over the paint so that its finish would fit with the glaze on the rest of the piece.
 
I really like the glaze on the Celtic knot on her chest.  Although it's a low-fire glaze, it has the look of a sroneware glaze.  I'll have to find out what it is and update this post with that information.
 
I consider myself a pretty good painter, so when I approached the task of glazing I told myself that I would have to develop a different "painting" style for ceramics.  This piece represents a success for me, so I think I'm on my way.
 
When I began this post I was thinking that this owl was finished.  But then I remembered I had one more step in mind.  I think you'll find it surprising, so stay tuned!


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