Mini Shamans

 

Most days I do a bit of surfing on Etsy and while I was doing so about a week ago I ran across a sweet shop, https://www.etsy.com/shop/jillatay.   When I surf Etsy it's mostly looking for supplies to use in my art, but I also like to see what other artists are doing.  Among Jill's many charming ceramic pieces are little ornaments with animal heads.  The bottoms of the ornaments are wrapped with a circle of clay, suggesting some sort of cloak, and she has a few beads dangling from the bottom.

These two little pieces were inspired by Jill's ornaments.  The larger one, the cat, is a bit under 3" tall.  The mold I used for the cat's cloak is one I made from polymer clay impressed with hemlock needles.  The mold I used on the lamb's cloak is a floral rubber stamp, but it was too deep for this purpose.  Although the stamp provided some texture, the image is not at all "readable."

Making these is a captivating process and I imagine I'll make more.

By the way, the eyes, mouth line, and nostril dots are acrylic paint which I applied after the pieces were glazed.  These details are just too small and precise for glaze - at least for me!  Once the acrylic paint dried I covered it with gloss acrylic varnish and it's indistinguishable from the surrounding glazed areas.