More Bisque-Fired Organic Pieces

More pieces are coming out of the kiln now - a couple more bisque-fired pieces on the underwater/organic theme.

I've been making and building these pieces without much planning - for each one, taking a hump-moulded base and then working with its size and shape to create the final forms. It's been successful so far.

The first piece is based on anemone-type forms, the base had a flattened top which lent itself to having a different surface and texture to the sides. I used balls of clay on the top, flattened and then poked with a crochet needle. I'd seen surface forms like this on some corals. The end result is part sunflower, part anemone.

Anemone-1 at the drying stage

Anemone-1 bisque-fired

This piece has a hole so it can be wall-hung. It's about 20cm across and 12 cm high.

The second piece was much more of a surprise. I started off with a basic egg-shape formed from two moulded halves. I knew I wanted to create a form that had many fingers or tentacles all over it. What I didn't realise was that as I applied the tentacles to the form, it would change its shape as it was only part-dried. I think this made the final shape more interesting. The effect is part pine-cone, part pangolin, part coral.

Egg-coral at the drying stage

Egg-coral - bisque-fired

I'm not sure on glazes yet. I am thinking of a plainer white glaze with oxide stain highlights for the anemone, and a plain blue or pink for the egg-coral.