Wise and Serious Owl; ceramic commission

[Bob in SF]

Some more mud-turning:
One of the local Audubon chapter members wanted a wise and serious ceramic owl image, so I obliged on the condition that I could exercise some creative license; steps:
Ball of porcelain clay turned and flattened down to a uniform 3/8" thickness on the potters wheel, then bisque fired.
Monochromatic underglaze painting done (from the imagination) using Coyote brand underglazes.
Eyes/facial features done using pigmented underglazes, realizing that there would be fairly dramatic color shifts (left to chance) in the final firing.
Coated with clear zinc-free glaze; then final-fired at cone 6.
Reminds me of a few of my doubting art teachers:

Best regards, Bob

 

[liljohn1368]

Nice hooter Bob..

 

[SteveG]

Is it a pen?

Only kidding...it is obvious that there is no place for a clip...a refill...or even a nib!:tongue:

Now that I got beyond all that nonsense, I must say I truly enjoy your expression in these various mediums that you post.

 

[Jim15]

Awesome work.

 

[Charlie_W]

Superb work on this piece Bob!
What is the diameter?

 

[Bob in SF]

Sincere thanks JP, Steve, Jim, and Charlie.

10" diameter.

I see the potter's wheel as a messy vertical lathe for which the potter is the centering device, heading for more danger with each additional increment of height. Great fun if you don't mind entropy.

 

[SteveG]

I learned of entropy as an undergrad at Vandy Univ,...Mechanical Engineering student. I became amazed, and fascinated how that one property so intricately entwines itself with EVERYTHING...from how and why your socks in the sock drawer become a tangled mess after a while (unless you intervene and rework the entropy) to how the ever-expanding nature of the universe is predicted and predictable (to a limited extent), to what happens when you go taller on a potter's wheel! It is "great fun"!

 

[Bob in SF]

I like it, Steve.

My oldest daughter is a mechanical engineer, and we have fun chats about the intersection of thermodynamics with it's blessed entropy, material science, and art/craft.

She designed and built her own spinning wheel to make all of her yarn after dyeing the hand-carded wool.

Nothing like the roller coaster of handling raw materials amid entropy.