The Thing

Golden, lurks in the fireplace.

Clay Reliefs

The terracotta design is one I did last Thursday which luckily the Badger fired for me during the week. It dried too quickly however and the crack you can see appeared before firing as the clay shrank. This has been partially repaired with paper clay, a mixture of clay and pulped paper (3:1) which can be refired and should bind the gap.
Today I made these grey/white clay reliefs. One is a tile. The lumps in the bottom of the pictures are blobs of paper clay which you can see have a different texture. In an effort to mitigate the risk of cracks from shrinkage, these deluxe items have been placed on thick paper which should allow the clay to move as it shrinks. The terracotta design was left on the wooden board which is more likely to stick to the clay and make it crack especially when it is as thin as this.

Wire Faces with Wool Hair!

Wire faces with wool hair - a prototype for my friends shop window in Knightsbridge! Will they like it?

Tricks: in order to protect the frames of the glasses, the rough wire edges have been sealed in small pieces of sellotape; meanwhile the faces are suspended from a curtain rail by fine yet strong fishing line (the trip to the fishing supplies shop in Wimbledon provided an intriguing glimpse of a parallel universe). Thanks Paul for these tips!

Wire Mesh Faces

More Wool & Glue

String & Glue

Have you ever used a glue gun? asks Badger. I got terrible burns at art college says Audrey. The gun gets plugged in and melts the glue which can be squeezed out via trigger.

It sticks the woven copper wire in seconds

Wire Progress

I think this needs to hang.
and this needs something more interesting over the paper maybe? Once the glue is dry the paper is quite tough. Perhaps some fine Japanese paper?