Explorations in Clayland Part 1: Ceramics

Let's start with art class.  

One of my first experiences with clay creations came from lessons in the art classroom.  The clay used was the kind that is shaped and then fired in a kiln.  Afterwards, the pieces are be painted and fired again to glaze.  This process was a fascinating one for my grade school self.  Let's see what I was getting up to.

Starting out, we have a flying saucer.  Nothing to it.  Half circle on a platter.  Fire it up.  Paint it black with yellow accents.

Next, we have a quartet of Pokémon, in various levels of damage.  Golem and Machop are on top.  Gastly and Arbok (missing lower half of body) are on the bottom.

Ahah, more intellectual property I cast into clay.  I believe these are characters from Neopets.  The Brain Tree, and the Ouroboros.  The tree looks a lot worse for wear.  Not sure what the serpent was supposed to be holding.

From there, we have figurines that were not fired a second time.  They were instead painted, which gives them a plain rather than glossy finish.  I don't believe I made these; likely they are creations from one of my brothers.  I really do like their look.  I think I'll call them Gerb Soldiers.  Science fiction on top, fantasy on the bottom.  The green one far below looks like an enemy alien, holding some sort of shield/gun combination.  I couldn't get all the detail I wanted in a single image, so I put together several angles.  I'll call him Blarg, from the planet Blarg 17.

Moving along, we approach a series of fantasy creatures.  Sand golem.  Cyclops with missing arm.  Some sort of dragon (which also might have been one of my brother's rather than mine).  A rhino beast with a missing horn.  Rounding it out, a skeleton king with broken sword, some blue blobs that might be zombies, a knight, and a disproportioned bat.  

Now here's an interesting fellow.  A monstrous centaur, captured in three angles.

Even more interesting, five figures that are supposed to represent different kinds of lycanthropes (werewolves).  I've included them together and also separately for more detail.  Sadly, the figures themselves are quite low resolution, more like abstract concepts than detailed monsters.

Lastly, my favorite.  It is also one of my final ceramic clay figures I made during high school.  I give you Jupiter Incarnate.  The head of this cosmic being is the planet Jupiter, balanced on a massive stellar body.  It was part of a game idea I worked on in high school, one that used clay figures on a game board coupled with trading cards with those figures' stats on them.  As you'll see in later explorations, that game is a prominent feature of my clay creations.

Hope you enjoyed this first installment of Exploration in Clayland.  See you next time.