So the last time I made anything in clay, I was at Brownies or something…
We did this one day workshop in the ceramics room at uni to try and get a taste for it. The day was taught by Sophie Woodrow, who is some kind of clay goddess and who just so happens to have a space in the same studios where I work – yay!
We could pretty much do whatever we wanted (which is a brief that never fails to draw a blank with me). I eventually opted to do a beetle thing and I am quite pleased with the results 
I started by carving the beetle design out of a block of Plaster of Paris using various modelling tools:
(apologies for slightly odd photo taken with phone)
Once the mould was finished, I pushed clay into it to make a relief image. This finished piece which has now been fired is made out of porcelain:
Pretty cool, huh? As an object, it serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever, but I’m down with that. It now has a special place with all my other useless crap in my living room.
Then, I got a little ahead of myself and decided to make these little votives in the few nano-seconds that I had left in the workshop. They turned out rather nicely I thought. I made the holes in the porcelain clay by taking the end out of a bic biro and using that as a punch – classy! I’m sure that’s how all the pros do it…
I think my time as a ceramicist may have to end here and much as I enjoyed it, I can’t imagine I’ll be back in that workshop any time again soon.
Nothing like quitting whilst you’re ahead!
