Just out of the fire

This was the second piece I made in the current obsession with busts; she's been sitting in the firing shed to wait for the last scheduled raku firing for well over a month.  I knew she wasn't going to go to CCACA in Davis and so was willing to sacrifice her to the raku kiln and hey.  She made it!

Made with IMCO sculpture 412, underglaze black and red , low fire western red glaze a white crackle raku glaze.  You can see there is a bit of blistering - we fired it long enough, I think it's a glaze incompatibility?   I was worried her head piece wouldn't make it - I thinned it out so much compared to the relative thickness of her head and neck - but it worked!  412 RULES!

Funny how when you make something  and put it aside for a while you have to reacquaint yourself with it; I find it's easier to do some critical thinking about what worked, what didn't, how to take that forward.

This one was also a face transplant; I had made a sculpture where I learned the hard way about the neck thickness.  I built some ridiculous cantilevered head gear and clunk,,,,,head fell off!  I really liked her face so I "surgically" removed, hacked, more like, it with a handy xacto and gave it another go.