I recently decided to try ceramics. And now I’m addicted! I just can’t stop making clay animals! The first piece of ceramics I made was a sabertooth tiger spoon rest, which, I believe, is an offspring of my previous sabertooth. (The mom looks a bit fiercer than her clay baby, but you can see that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.)
Sabertooth spoon rest, approximately 13x8x2.5 inches
It’s funny that while I worked on the sabertooth, both the tiger and I had lots of problems with our heads – his kept falling off because I ignored my teacher’s advice to “score and slip,” a pottery technique used to firmly attach two pieces of clay to each other. My head almost fell off, too, because of a string of unpleasant events. The last couple of months I felt like the only thing that kept my head in place were my frequent trips to the ceramics studio. Fixing the tiger’s head, among other things, had an existential impact on my mental health.
Crocodile trivet, approximately 12x8x0.5 inches
While I was waiting for the new tiger head to dry, be repainted and fired, I took on another project. I had grown tired of the cheap, factory-produced trivets (those small panels you place under a hot serving dish) on our dining room table and was looking for an animal shape that could accommodate two pots. Thus the crocodile trivet was born. This one, I decided, would be made from one piece. I wasn’t sure if I could handle any more rolling heads. (It bears mentioning that the trivet, too, has relatives among my quilts.)
Armadillo cheese plate, approximately 15x9x2.5 inches
The most recent piece I finished was an inverted armadillo (with its bands across its belly, not its back). The armadillo, I figured, would serve as a cheese plate or a fruit “bowl.” You guys! Is there anything crazier and more adorable than armadillos? In my humble opinion, armadillos put human babies to shame. Talking about babies, though, I had made an armadillo baby quilt for a friend and later an armadillo pillow commissioned by a nice Texan lady. When I started ceramics I thought it’d be fun to add a related, functional object to my armadillo oeuvre.
Pillow commissioned by a nice Texan lady
I was surprised to find the process of coiling, pinching, slipping, bisquing and glazing as meditative and soothing as the cutting, ironing and stitching of fabric. Also, I still don’t feel like making objects that can’t be used to keep us warm or fat or both (priorities!). I always set out to make a piece that serves as a practical household item. Once it’s done, that’s a different story. The sabertooth quilt started out as a headboard but has become a wall hanging in someone’s fancy home. While it does hang above a bed, no heads will ever touch it. And it won’t go in the washer in the foreseeable future, or so I am told. Its clay baby was designed as a spoon rest to fit on my stove where spoons habitually fall through the cast iron grid. But now it’s taken on a life of its own. (They grow up so fast!) For now, no pot will bang it and no dirty spoon will soil it.
Someone else’s fancy home
Now on to the koala tortilla warmer and the Dutch rabbit jar. More to follow soon.
Email me for prices: sabineheinlein@gmail.com