Thursday, January 6, 2011

I'm Out Of Wool!



Well, not exactly. I don't think the wool well will ever run dry. What I'm actually out of is washed wool to card. It is the goal for the winter to wash up and card all of the fleeces. (yes, it would be so much more practical to send it out, but for now, I'm enjoying processing it here) SO.... with wool drying on the shelf, and having stated my excuse for not carding wool today, I experimented with clay instead.


(i say experiment, because so many times, i have no idea what I'm doing, but I had in mind to try a sculpture today)

I have been adding pages to our website, and when I came across this picture the other day of Carlie it reminded me of how sweet she is and how much i would enjoy sitting out in the field with her. She was sweet from the time she was born, so it is just in her personality. Many times I would go out to check on the sheep and sit down in the field for a minute and here comes Carlie. She would sit down right next to me and put her head on my leg and close her eyes. She is a 1/2 sister to Ziggy, Didi, and Roxy - who also seem to have a "sweet gene."
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So thinking back on summer days and hanging out with Carlie, this is what came out of the clay.


This is what I love about clay - this looks like just a lump of clay, but Carlie was in there all along! I just had to find her.

The piece still needs a lot of work, and who knows if it will ever make it to the kiln, but it was a fun experiment.

10 comments:

  1. Love it! Reminds me of my Sophia who also has that sweet gene.

    BTW, I absolutely adore my mug. It is perfect, the glaze is gorgeous. It will be replacing all others as my daily coffee mug.

    As I sat here admiring it this morning I wondered if you had ever tried making the wool of the sheep unglazed? I'm going to show my pottery making ignorance here by not knowing the terminology, but I seem to recall there is some sort of resist method that can be used when a piece is dipped then after firing the resist area looks like raw clay?

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  2. What a beautiful ewe! I love the sculpture...

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  3. The sculpture is beautiful!! I hope it makes it to the kiln. I think it would be a great piece.

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  4. The sculpture is looks beautiful. I kind of like it a bit abstract. I think only a couple of our sheep have a sweet gene. Most have that, let's knock her down and get the grain, gene. Or the, Oh, she is going to eat us alive, gene. I have to work on that. You know, not eating sheep alive anymore.;)

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  5. My Olive is the sweetest of the sweethearts around here right now. Gotta love those bottle babies! Your sculpture is wonderful. I'd buy one of those in a heart-beat!

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  6. As everyone else said - this is going to be beautiful and I would buy on in a heart-beat too! :) Love your creativity!! ~Marie

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  7. I love your sculpture! The simplicity of the design makes it anybody's sheep. I think you have a winner here.
    Running out of wool is not a bad thing when you are multi-talented.
    I have a little sheep that I bought about 35 years ago where the artist took the clay and ran it through a garlic press to make the wool for the sheep.

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  8. Your sculpture is amazing, and from it I can easily picture you and the real sheep and that sweet memory!

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  9. I had no idea you were a sculptor. Not surprised! lol

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