Clay creatures
Our autumn 2023 Well-City Salisbury course took place over eight weeks in October and November with local artist and ceramicist Anne-Marie Marshall-Fieber.
In our first workshop, we made small owls by moulding clay into a pinch pot for the owl’s body before adding a head, wings, beak, eyes and other features. We then made impressions in the clay using various tools (feathers, pens, stamps) to create textures and patterns. When joining the head to the body, we used the ‘slip, score and blend’ technique which involves scratching the surface of both adjoining pieces, using wet clay to ‘glue’ the pieces together and then blending the joins to secure them. (N.B. this technique was also used by some of us to repair our work!)
Satisfied with our parliament of owls we cast our eyes outwards to the rolling hills of Wiltshire to research our next project.
Our flock of sheep began life as two large pinch pots which we joined together to form the torso. After adding a smaller pinch pot for the head, we used a range of kitchen graters, garlic presses and clay rolling techniques to add the wool to the sheep’s bodies.
We look forward to working with Anne-Marie to glaze and finish these pieces.
Read more about Well-City Salisbury partnership project
