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Hollowed-out head of Chihuahua sculpted of stoneware clay served as the teapot’s spout. Details of the head were carved after the clay was somewhat dried.
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Replica of fortune cookie for lid was made with a thin slab of stoneware paperclay. This delicate item was added last.
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Construction sequence: First fired to cone 06. Detailed underglazes hand-painted.for the puppy and air-brushed for the take-out box. Lettered fortune strip was also hand-painted with black underglazes. Clear glaze was applied to the handles.Refired to cone 6. Silver luster applied to give handles a metallic sheen.Fired again to cone 018.
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Size: 10” x 7” x 6”. Date: 2006.
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Clay Art and Craft Museum, Houston, TX;
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Sold.
Enlarged Views
Creative Process
This whimsical piece is fashioned entirely of stoneware paperclay. It is a functional teapot, consisting of a typical Chinese take-out container with clay “wire” handles. The container is open. Emerging from within is a tiny puppy surrounded by noodles. A fortune cookie serves as the teapot’s lid, while the dog’s snout is its spout. The surface detail work is achieved by image transfer air-brushing of fabric pattern. The fortune reads “It’s a dog eat dog world.”
Designing this piece proved to be challenging with regard to stability and strength. I was particularly concerned about whether the thin clay handle would be strong enough to support the weight of the piece. Doubling the extruded clay used to make the faux-wire handle was an obvious solution for enhancing its strength. I also fashioned one of the flaps to bend downward and serve thereby as a kind of second handle for the vessel. But best of all was that as the work progressed, it became clear that the paperclay stoneware medium made it possible to create a piece that was both thin-walled and deceptively light in weight, yet had great strength at the same time.
Detailed Views
