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What Are Your Favorite Animals?


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I need inspiration.

 

All I've been making are rabbits, kitsune (Japanese multi-tailed fox), guinea piglets, and dragons (and stuff I'm not supposed to make, but won't mention here).

 

I am bored.

 

I love animals MOAR THAN ANYTHING.

 

Seriously. I'm a veggie guinea.

 

Soooo...what are your favorite animals? :3 And why? What is it about that one critter you love? I'd like to hear some stories and maybe get some inspiration for new stuffs. Fantasy animals count, too.

 

UNICORNS

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  I may not be a lot of help...most of my animal-clay pieces are only masks.  I am sitting here with a copy of 500 Animals in Clay and will refer to that book for reference. The paperback version is about $15. The book has realistic to completely whimsical animal pieces...I lean toward the whimsical.

My masks hang out on the walls of my studio...its a little like having company while I work.  I'm not even sure what animal this is, but he seems friendly enough when I walk in:
small-mask.jpg

 

-Paul

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Hmm favorite animals. Right now we have a cat, big furry thing that is a real character, but I don't allow him in the studio. Hmmmm maybe I should, as a few years ago, I found a big RAT in the studio that had died in the winter-looked like a cat had it out with him. Door had to be hook locked all the time. Since then I have put on a new door and window to seal up the shop better. Rats came from an old factory that made flavored peanuts that was torn down the Summer before. Whole neighborhood had a problem that Winter.

 

I don't like animals In the Studio, literally or otherwise. ^_^

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I love horses. My most inspiring experience with them happened when I took my advanced students to the Pryor Mountains to dig clay. We were a few miles from a Vision Quest site..so we continued up to the top and across a 2 rutted road in misty clouds. All of a sudden a herd of wild horses came up from behind us out of a cloud , ran past us with their Spring foals and disappeared down into a cooly.I began drawing them on raku slabs.

 

Marcia

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post-1954-0-68619900-1418228258_thumb.jpg

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  I may not be a lot of help...most of my animal-clay pieces are only masks.  I am sitting here with a copy of 500 Animals in Clay and will refer to that book for reference. The paperback version is about $15. The book has realistic to completely whimsical animal pieces...I lean toward the whimsical.

 

My masks hang out on the walls of my studio...its a little like having company while I work.  I'm not even sure what animal this is, but he seems friendly enough when I walk in:

small-mask.jpg

 

-Paul

Paul, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that mask!  And no, I've never claimed  triple-love for anything on CAD!   Jayne

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I like animals, too.  I don't often make them, though, which is probably more a function of time than anything else.

 

Recently-ish I made a rabbit head after being inspired by a Lisa Naples clip that was on the front page of CAD.  I uploaded two pictures to my gallery (http://community.ceramicartsdaily.org/gallery/album/775-smattering-of-pottery-pieces/)  In that same gallery I have pictures of a raccoon I made for raku (and was inspired by the similarity between the words raccoon and raku, and also that you often see raccoons in trashcans, which I use for reduction when firing raku).

 

In another of my gallery albums (http://community.ceramicartsdaily.org/gallery/album/820-stoketember/) I have pictures of some of the animal-themed pieces I made for a recent workshop at Arrowmont.  The workshop was about decorating pieces with slip and wax resist as well as woodfiring.  I obviously have a thing for canines...  my mom has a thing for rabbits, and another family member has a thing for squirrels.  What I like about that set of animals is that they could all be traditional woodland creatures that might co-exist (or eat each other, you know, whatever).

 

I have also made tiny hedgehogs in the past (tear drop shapes with upturned noses, basically).  Something I think you would find almost as funny as I do is that when I was growing up, my mom used to call guinea pigs "guinea frogs."  Maybe you could combine some of the guinea pig features with some frog features...

 

I have always loved rhinoceroses, but have not yet successfully made one.  They are hilariously shaped and textured beings, though.

 

I doubt any of this is helpful for you, but I'm at least enjoying thinking about animals.  :)

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I am a dog lover but I am drawn towards the clay sculptures of birds especially geese.  You can develop a simplified free flowing form and still see a goose.  Denice

 

This makes me think of exactly what I was trying to do with my brushed animals for the workshop I mentioned.  I wanted to be able to call to mind an animal with few brushstrokes.  I uploaded 5 other pictures to show you what I mean (http://community.ceramicartsdaily.org/gallery/album/820-stoketember/): more foxes, a rabbit, a squirrel...  I was really drawn to the fox faces with one brushstroke each for the ears, the two eyes, and one for the nose and jaw line.

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