I just added the final touches to a trio of totem animals that I sculpted a few weeks ago. I sculpted them from stoneware - a mid-range fire clay. The thing I really like about this clay is the ring of it when you tap on it. It's like glass rather than clay, making that beautiful clear pinging sound. The downside is that I don't have as many colors of glaze for this type of clay as I do for the lower fire earthenware, so my color choices are limited.
This is a mid-range glaze that I like very much, called "Sea Salt" - a nice warm white with little speckles. The eyes are "Black Walnut" which is a brownish black mottled with black. At the edges, it's more brown as you can see around the edges of the eyes. both glazes are by Mayco.
I finished to totems by tying artificial sinew around the "waists" and adding semi-precious gemstone beads. It would be nice to choose the beads so that the mystical meanings of the stones complement the mystical meanings of the animals, but I decided to just go with color instead. So this polar bear has chryophase, Peruvian opal, prehnite, and quartz.
Initially, I wasn't too happy with the sculpting as I thought it was a bit crude. But now that it's finished, I like it. He looks rather impish.
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