I want to be leaf.

I'm going to be making a ceramic tile version of this comic for Apelad but I wasn't ready to jump into it right away. I decided to make a "hobo jug" to get started.

I learned to make this kind of bottle in a hand building class at Waterworks Art Studio here in Tulsa. It's slab constructed and is really easy and fast (considering I can do it in an afternoon rather than a period of days like my coil stuff).

This is the basic bottle with handle added (which I actually did last):



I'd drawn the leaf earlier to use as a template:



I suppose I could have cut it out and traced around it, but I didn't think of it. I did what I sometimes do when I want to transfer a design to a tile--lay the paper on top of the clay and poke holes with my needle tool. And then I can cut along the line marked by the dots.

I did a little work on the leaf, and then scored both the back of the leaf and the area I applied it to on the bottle, brushing on slip as a kind of glue.



Once the leaf was on, I started making Pip's face. Well, making a tiny cat face out of clay is not one of the easiest things to do. The hardest part was getting the eyes and mouth in place. My hand was shaking towards the end, too, so I "erased" what I'd done to finish later.



I'll get it right eventually:



I think when it's all over, Pip will also have arms as if hanging onto a ledge (or looking out a window) so he's not so much just a disembodied head. Like I said, this is just a warm up.

*Edit: I couldn't find it earlier..I want to be leaf.