Finally working with clay :)

Ok so after deciding to base my piece on a picture of Ollie, I got to work! First did the basics, rolled out two sheets of clay on the slab roller and left them to go leather hard. I then cut the pieces into rectangular sheets and joined them together by scoring them and using plenty of slip or "slurry" as Christy referred to it as before pinching them firmly together. So it looked like this....

Having no idea how it was going to turn out, I began to draw Ollies face in the centre of the clay piece. I thought it wasnt interesting though, so scraped it off using a kidney tool and began using the whole clay piece as a canvas! I experimented... added clay, took away clay, scrope and scratched at it using different tools until I was happy with it.

This is how it turned out! It looks more like the mask out of Crash Bandicoot than Ollie ooooops!! but its one of my first ceramic pieces and am quite pleased with it! Now its all ready to go in the kiln... have to decide how to glaze it, hmmmm... :)