The second is Christabel, she sits calm and poised on her plinth. I gave her a dusting of green acrylic paint and then dry brushed her very lightly with gold. It does give her a bronze look.
I was pleased with the way the dress draped both at the front, over her legs and at the back. She needs another coat of varnish and then she can take her place in the garden. (Far away from Bertie, otherwise she will be minus her wooden plinth).
I always find it a problem knowing what I want to achieve when I go to our pottery classes. Sometimes I think my ideas are too complicated and doom myself to failure before I start.
My last project was taken from an item in a ceramics book, it was far more complicated than mine turned out, as the main body of the piece was made from turned clay. As I am no good at throwing pots (only dropping them), I adapted the procedure to produce my Tea Light Castle.
Once it was made and fired I gave it a coat of watered down PVA glue, just to give a good base for the acrylic paint. It was a bit time consuming painting it as it had some fiddly bits to the roof but on the whole I was quite pleased with it and it does look quite nice sitting on the table in the garden with the light coming out of the turrets and the doorway. It did have a nice gargoyle on the top but I am afraid he dropped off in the kiln, may have to get my Fimo out and make another.
I have been watching Barbara Gray on the Create and Craft channel recently as well as our own Lesley demonstrating the Clarity Stamps http://www.graphicus.co.uk/prodsearch.asp?search=clarity+stamps&submit.x=15&submit.y=12 and they have inspired me to have a go. So I bought a Speedball Brayer and using some encaustic card that I already had I locked myself in the kitchen away from the kleptomaniac Bertie. Apart from getting a few lines here and there that I could have done without the result was quite pleasing. The photographs are not very good, they look at though they have a bend in them. I need to take more, the one I was most proud of did not take properly, I will have another go. I am now pestering Lesley to give me a couple of lessons with the brayer.
