Desert Broom and Rosemary Molds

I've been working on menorahs made with impressions of plants.  These are molds from impressions of desert broom and rosemary.

Cluster of 7 Eyes

Mouth Molds Part 4

Green Teeth

Silver Chamsas With Purple Eyes

I'm selling small chamsas on fiverr.  I received an order for a custom chamsa, colored silver with a purple eye. 

 http://fiverr.com/strangeloops/send-you-a-hamsa-amulet

These are the other available chamsas:

Bread-Loaf-Sized Tardigrade WIP

I have a commission to make a tardigrade the size of a loaf of bread.

I think it looks like a cross between a water bear and a mammalian bear.  The feet look clunky and ridiculous, but I'm fairly sure that if I tried to make realistic tardigrade claws, they would break off in the kiln.

Without head, feet, or all those little holes:

Kiln Casualties

I fired a bisque kiln of my work a few days ago and unloaded it tonight.  There were a few unpleasant surprises.

I fired five new eye cups and two of them had the molded mouths break off.  There was probably some air trapped behind them and the fastest and easiest way for it to escape was by breaking off the attached mouth (as opposed to exploding violently).

Eye Cup #7

Eye Cup #9

My second attempt at an Ophanim Pot did not survive intact.  The first Ophanim Pot survived the bisque firing but the pot was damaged in the glaze kiln although the lid survived.  This time, the lid cracked in half and the pot survived.  I had originally loaded this second Ophanim Pot with the lid in place.  After the kiln was completely loaded, I worried that there might be air trapped inside.  So I took apart the kiln shelves, shifted the lid of the Ophanim Pot so that there was definitely no air trapped, and reloaded the kiln.  I should have fired the lid separately.  Assuming the pot comes through the glaze kiln with no problems, I now have a lid without a pot and a pot without a lid and the two are unfortunately not compatible.

 

This Is My Garden

I live in an apartment with a small patio with a garden of potted plants.  Each pot is attended by a clay guardian.  I wrote a garden post a few years ago:  Garden Sculptures and this is an update.

The Entire Garden

This sculpture was meant to be the head of an interpretation of the Bat-rat-spider monster from the classic sci-fi film Angry Red Planet.  I couldn't figure out how to get the long spider legs to support the head so I never got around to making the rest of it.  I don't know what plant this is.  They started growing in an empty pot and they don't look like anything I ever planted.

This is the smallest and least cat-like of my cat columns.  It lives in a thicket of thyme.

This is one of the Wise Man Objects made from a Nativity Scene I found by the dumpster last year.  It lives among the sunflowers.

This is the Bill the Cat/Tongue Cat Column.  It lives in the rosemary bush.

This is the first Warthog Column I made, which was damaged when a shelf collapsed.  It has lived among the immortal pineapple mint plant since I moved here.  Strangely, when I lived out in the desert, anything I left outside had a good chance of being stolen.  Since I've moved into the city, I haven't had anything stolen.  

This is a skull-spider object (and a few white clay skeleton molds) in the pot with the jalapeño plant.

This was a prototype for a cake topper for my sister's wedding.  It was meant to portray her and her husband on bicycles.  The prototype broke in half and never got glazed.  The final version also broke in half and turned out to be too heavy to function as a cake topper.

This is an atavistic sculpture of a creature resembling a bat or spider with many eyes.  The plant grew from seeds in my compost pile.  I think it's a cantaloupe plant.

I've encouraged some wild plants to grow in this pot and something has sprouted, but I'm not sure if it's one of the wild plants (desert broom or desert lavender) or just more sunflowers.  The clay guardian is a wiwaxia, a strange fossil organism from the Burgess Shale.

I think these are more sunflowers growing in this pot.  Also in this pot is a scene in which Mary and Joseph defend themselves against a menacing Flail Snail 

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This was a rescue plant found by the side of the road.  I think it's a kind of fern.  It's managed to spread into some other pots as well.  The clay guardian is the Stone-Colored Maggot Atavism.

This lovely creature is called the Apple Pussy Monstrosity.  It's guarding an extra crop of basil, racing against time to see if it survives the horrifying two week period in which there's a danger of frost in Tucson.

This pot contains dill, cilantro, and few plants I don't recognize.  Its clay resident is the Tree Trunk Devotion 

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This is a a small shrine consisting of a plaster nun, the Weeping Giraluna, a purple pot received as a gift, and the Joint of Mutton.

This is a larger shrine consisting of the damaged Ophanim Pot, a practice Chwidencha, a Germinant, the Giraffe Column, an Easter Bunny given to me as a gift, and my tribute to my deceased dog Chiqui.

Bird Demon WIth Its Organs on the Outside

Number Three of the Emanations/Offspring of Ul' Rh'yl'ng:

Space Coyotes 8, 9, and 10

These are clay interpretations of the Johnny Cash-voiced spirit coyote that Homer Simpson meets in "El viaje misterioso de nuestro Jomer."  Space Coyote #10 has an extra pair of eyes.

Tardigrade on a Couch WIP

Once again, I attempted to make the seated tardigrade smoking a bong.  I made a monstrous sofa for the tardigrade to sit on, but when I started trying to sculpt the tardigrade, I realized that water bear anatomy is not conducive to the seated posture.  I couldn't get it to come out how I was imagining it.

I was going to keep the sofa and save the seated tardigrade stoner for another day.

I cut the tardigrade into segments (head, three body segments, caudal segment) and rearranged them to produce this awkward creature.

I realized that a tardigrade seated on a couch probably should look awkward.  And so Monstrous Chair joined Seated Tardigrade.  It felt absurd enough without the bong and the tardigrade's arms are too short anyway.