The Octopus - Week 1

Happy New Year! I am going to post a progression of my newest Magic Mirror, The Octopus. Here is a photo of the preliminary drawing and starting the head and tentacles. It will likely change shape as I continue to work on it. I am so excited about this new piece! It is coming together pretty fast. Sometimes I get really inspired by a shape or creature and can't wait to bring it to life. Just imagining the  Jelly-like movements of the Octopus, swimming in the sea. It may sound crazy, but I love to spend time with him!

This first set of tiles, for the Octopus' body, were done with the red clay back in 2010 http://anneinclayland.blogspot.com/2010/02/studio-time.html. The textures came from metal hardware that I found somewhere, and it was a good test on red clay with this glaze. I am running a little short on tiles, so I may have to amend the picture from the original drawing. That's fine. It will look great.

I need to fire my kiln again soon... the tiles I glazed last week were somehow painted totally the wrong color. I am not sure how this happened! Ugh! Apparently I wasn't paying attention. One great thing about ceramics is that (sometimes) you can glaze over the old glaze and re-fire the piece. If I fire them by Thursday I can use them to work with over the weekend... assuming I got the color right this time.