Antskulls

The Zuckuss Ant.


The Emperor Ant

Amiskwia saggitiformis

Amiskwia was an flattened swimming invertebrate found in the Burgess Shale. Those spots on the head are thought to be central ganglia. The relationship of Amiskwia to modern animals has yet to be determined.



This is my third attempt at a clay representation of Amiskwia (yes, I'm repeating the name over and over again. It's named for a river in Canada and that skw consonant cluster is fun to type.) For the first two attempts, I tried to portray it in the undulating, swimming position as pictured above. Each time, one of the tentacles around the mouth broke off and I ended up throwing it out. The third time, I made it flat and it survived, but it's just that: flat and not very appealing.

Tales from the Shelf 2

I continue to work my way through the Fiend Folio. This is a carp dragon.



I continue with the Star Wars imagery: Max Rebo, the Ortolan organist with an eating disorder from Return of the Jedi.



And I depart from previous themes with an interpretation of the my favorite song when I was about 3, "Teddy Bears' Picnic." Actually, it's meant to be a tanuki, a Japanese animal known in English as the raccoon dog, the folkloric equivalent of which is a mythic trickster figure with oversized testicles. Of course, there is also a tanuki suit in Super Mario Bros. 3, minus the big balls, and I'm planning on an interpretation of that bit of modern folklore as well.

Halloween Decoration 3

The last of the Halloween decoration objects for now. I don't remember where the mold for the face came from. The hands are once again from Jabba the Hutt's Quarren accountant known as Tessek by name, or pejoratively as Squid Head.


And here are all three Halloween objects in case you missed them the first time.

Halloween Decoration 2

The face on this piece is made from a very creepy plastic Christmas decoration of three soulless child-zombies singing hymns from the Necronomicon.

Halloween Decoration 1

The skull mold is from a Halloween nightlight. The spiral top is from a Bride of Frankenstein candle. The arms are from a mold of a piece of coral.

Beholder 4

Khargra

The khargra is a slightly less than classic monster from the first edition AD&D Fiend Folio. Khargra are creatures from the Elemental Plane of Earth (which itself seems to have gone missing in recent editions of the game) which burrow through solid rock like an earthworm through soil, but presumably without the beneficial effects to human agricultural efforts.


My interpretation of the khargra. The claws are molds of the hands of the "Squidhead"/Tessek figure from Return of the Jedi.




This is the rear view to show that the khargra has an anatomically correct anus. Baby's got back.

Spiked Log / Cunt Log

This is my old spiked log which was smashed in the falling shelf incident in June.



The new one came out a little different, with a long pink slit right in the middle. I think it looks more like a wound than an orifice, but I'm tempted to call it Cunt Log just the same.

Centipede Log

The original Log objects were destroyed or damaged in the falling shelf incident in June. The Centipede Log is mostly the same as the original.

Cat Column With Detachable Head

I made this cat column a while ago, but it lost an ear and spent about a year bisqued but not glazed on my shelf. I'm trying to clear some space on the shelf, so I finally glazed it, but the head came off while I was dipping it in Warren's Green glaze. Here are the two separate pieces:



Here are some different poses of the cat head on the column:

Unfinished Mushroom

Skull Stars

Small Cat Column

The cat columns eventually became less than cat-like. I think this one looks more like a rabid pika or a bat.



It's currently doing a shit job of guarding the dill seedlings.

Hatta Column

I'm out of new work again, but not for long. From the archives, this is part of a series of column sculptures based on Lewis Carroll characters. This is the Hatter. I'm not sure why the nose looks like the Froot Loops mascot's bill.

Nectocaris

Death Crab would have been almost as evocative a genus name as Hallucigenia, but it's Nectocaris (swimming crab), not Necrocaris. This is another Burgess Shale mystery creature which has since found a taxonomic home with the lovely cephalopods.






Disclaimer: This model of Nectocaris is not designed to be used as marijuana paraphernalia. It has no mouth and anus to be exploited as an airway. It's not anatomically correct. As for Nectocaris #3, however...

Odontogriphus, Toothed Riddle

This is another Burgess Shale fossil interpretation: Odontogriphus, meaning toothed riddle. The eye-like indentations around the mouth are apparently salivary glands. Odontogriphus is thought to be related to early mollusks.

Pikaia 3

Releasing Some Fragments

I'm releasing some fragments of damaged clay objects into the wild. This is the first one: the detached cap of the first skull shroom, released into the alley that goes around the apartment complex.







So you found a strange object in the alley and aren't sure what to do with it...
You could:

• Throw it against the wall.
• Leave it here.
• Take it home.
• Post to the lost & found section of craigslist because I'd like to know where it ends up

Dengar Dreidel

So I'm up to Dengar. I'm happy with the dreidel, but the mold of the Dengar's face doesn't do much for it. It's not a very expressive face, which I guess makes sense considering he's a bounty hunter who had himself partially lobotomized in order to make himself a less remorseful killer.

Tales from the Shelf

Last night I went to the pottery studio. My small shelf in the closet is packed with fragments of broken sculptures, books, a shoebox full of molds, tools, clay, and recent unfired work. To get to the tools, clay, and molds, I have to take everything off the shelf and then put it back on. Each time I move the unfired pieces, it increases the chances that they're going to break. Unfortunately, I damaged this unfired beholder just as I was cleaning up. I knocked off one of the eye stalks. I managed to reattach it with clay slip, but its chances for surviving the bisque kiln intact are still diminished.



Below is another 1e AD&D monster that I'm attempting for the first time. I just wanted to note that I removed the logo from the shoe box because I don't want to be accused of product placement on this blog. Fuck you, New Balance (does that count as product placement?).

Joint of Mutton with Basil