• Preliminary sketch of a new teapot in the Melo-Tea Series in which a violin is morphed into the form of a cowgirl dressed in Western garb with leather belt and boots.

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• Hand-building is facilitated using clay slabs made in preformed template patterns.
• Here the body of the fiddle is constructed by this method.

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• Trim is added in the form of extruded clay piping.
• Sculpted Western-style boots are also appended in place to do double duty as feet for the teapot.

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• The boots are developed by a combination of slab construction modified by sculpting, carving and press mold additions.
• Faux stitching supplements the design as well.

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• Creating a more flowing gestural handle was considered important, so a number of different templates were made before a satisfactory one was chosen for this piece.
• Two clay slab matching parts were made and attached to the body of the work, draped over the base of the teapot and attached in place by slip and score method.
• Additional sculpting and carving was done to embellish the handle as well.

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• Several sculptural details are formed and appended to the developing piece, including tuning component, kerchief, belt, buckle, holster and guns.
• The tuning components added to fiddle's handle are created of a slip cast mold from an actual violin tuner, rather than sculpted separately as in the prototype piece Mel-Oh-Tea-Us.
• A  few small details are added to complete the sculptural phase of the teapot's construction.

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• The last few sculptural details of the teapot are added, including triggers for the guns and more tooling details to the belt.
• The piece is now allowed to dry to the greenware state before its first kiin firing to cone 06.

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• A series of underglazes are applied. These are rubbed off on the press mold areas, such as the belt and the boots. Other areas are meticulously hand painted with underglazes to create the faux wood surface treatment of the violin.
• The work is fired successfully a second time at cone 5.
• Multiple layers of China paints are applied to provide enriched colored embellishments. Refiring is done after each layer.
• Opalescent ruby and gold overglazes are applied to belt and boots. Firing is done once again to cone 017.
• Silver luster is painted on the buckle and other detailed parts of the gun and the belt. Final firing to cone 018.
• Varnishes and cold finishes complete the work.  

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