Here is the first one, from years back, made from two pieces of clay: one for the merman, one for the fish he's holding. Back then, as a rather complete novice, I hadn't figured out that I could add clay to clay, that I could assemble figures from multiple pieces, that I could put something together a step at a time, piece by piece. I thought I needed to form my figures--mermaid, fish, fetish, or merman--from a single piece of clay in a single action, a swoop, before I would overwork the clay or allow it to become too dry. How naive, yes? (I was taking pottery classes, working with the wheel, and playing with clay, making figures, on the side. Later I learned to seek help.)
That particular naivete led to particular benefits. The figure here is one piece of clay from helmet to tail-fin, worked quickly into shape, and finished in twenty or twenty-five minutes only. The piece is strong, not liable to easy breakages. Also, the short craft period explains the roughness of the features and allowed me to stop when I might have been tempted to overwork the piece, attempting to refine the features beyond my then-capabilities. Working under that self-imposed and unnecessary constraint, I started and finished figures, and finishing is a good thing, harder than some people may imagine. With this merman, I worked fast and aimed at catching gesture and flow in the clay.
I scaled the fellow using a silver ring with a Celtic pattern, and I'm particularly pleased with the way I used the ring to help me form the creature's hands. Check out those knuckles.
Stoneware; glazes in green,blue, and gray. Note the blotchy chest. I dripped glaze on top of glaze in hopes of gaining the texture and color of kelp; I got lucky. But check out those knuckles again.
