Wrapped

Clay, ~14" across, finished piece

Well, it's always risky to take people's "suggestions" for a piece to do, but this one was just crazy enough that I thought I'd try it... 

Greg, the owner of a gallery I've had several pieces in over the years (and who was the first person to actually sell one of my pieces for me!) was looking at some of my newest work, and he suggested that I try to combine a figure with what you would traditionally think of as a vessel or something functional.  I wasn't sure if it would work, or if it would just end up looking contrived, but I thought I'd try it anyway.  I have to say this is a really difficult piece to photograph, largely because of the way her arm comes in front of her face, but this is a slightly different angle from the WIP I posted earlier: observer14.deviantart.com/art/…

This one was definitely pulling out all the stops though in terms of technique!  I created the bowl with a slab, but didn't want to let it get too dry before carving out the place where I blended in the figure.  She is merged right into the rim of the bowl, with her hair flowing around the edge to just a little beyond her hand. This is also not a very stable clay body at high (cone6) firing temperatures.  I put several supports around the lip of the bowl, but you can still see where the bowl took on a bit of a wave shape.  There are also a few technical issues (cracks), so not really sale quality, but it was an interesting experiment, and I'm pleased with how the finished piece looks.

in any event, she was a fun piece to try.  I have some different ideas to try out.