There’s a trick to making birds and animals with hollow bodies. A hollow body uses less clay and is lighter and will dry out more quickly. To make a hollow body make two pitch pots and stick them together ….
I’ve written another blog post with more pictures showing how to make a hollow ball with pinch pots.
Use about 150g of clay to make a chicken or mouse. Your Dipsy ball of clay will make one of each.
For the chicken with a hollow body: divide your ball of clay into 4. Roll each 1/4 into a ball and use 2 balls to make the body.
Make a pinch pot with of two of your balls.
Make sure the rims of your pinch pots are the same size and if not pinch one a bit more to make them match. Then scratch, wet and gently rub the edge of both pinch pots to make them sticky. Stick the pinch pots together to make a ball smoothing over the join with you thumb or a blunt knife. Roll your ball gently on a flat surface to get it really round.
Make a hole in your hollow ball in order to change its shape. Pinch, roll and smooth the ball into an egg shape with a neck and bottom. – you can now continue with the instructions for the Stay at home chicken – easy.
To make a mouse with a hollow body divide the clay into 3. Roll each 1/3 into a ball. Use two of the balls to make the body and the other 1/3 for the rest of the mouse bits.
Make two pinch pots and join them to make the body. Make a hole in the body and roll one end of the body to make it pointed for the nose – more pictures to follow.
