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.
A hollow ball can be used as a base to make many animals or birds and many other things. It can be a bit tricky at first but practice makes perfect!
Start with 2 equal size balls of clay. Start to make a pinch pot with one ball by sticking your thumb in the middle of the ball.
Gently pinch around the thumb hole to make a bowl shape. Take your time and feel the clay as you pinch to make sure you don’t pinch too hard and make the clay too thin. Try not to pinch the clay outwards too much which will make the bowl too flat. You are aiming to make a hemisphere (a half ball). If your pinch pot goes wrong, wet the clay a little and roll it back into a ball and start again.
Repeat with the other ball of clay to make another pinch pot. The rims of the pinch pots need to be the same size so they match up when joined.
Scratch the rim of both of your pinch pots.
Wet the rims of both pinch pots to make them sticky. Hold one pinch pot in each hand ready for joining.
Gradually bring the rims together until the two pots are joined
Smooth clay over the join using your thumb or a blunt knife or similar. When the whole rim join is covered over roll the ball gently on a table or other flat surface to make the ball round and smooth.
This chicken is made with a solid body like the mouse in the previous post. Use about 150g of clay – a Dipsy Dragon ball of clay will make 2. (Any ammount of clay will do if you stick to the fractions given)
Stay at home chicken!
Divide your ball of clay into 3. Use 2/3 for the body and 1/3 for the other bits and roll these into balls.
Shape the body piece by rolling, pinching and smoothing to make a sort of egg shape with a neck and a bottom like the image.
Divide the small ball into 2 and roll into balls. Divide one ball into 3, 1/3 each for the wings and 1/3 for both feet. Divide the other ball into 2, 1/2 for the head and beak and the other 1/2 for the comb and tail. Roll all these pieces into balls.
Take a small pinch of clay off the head ball for the beak. Divide the tail and comb ball into three, 2/3 for the tail and 1/3 for the comb. Divide the feet ball into 2 one for each foot.this seems complicated but doesn’t need to be exact. Have a look at the next picture if you are confused!!This picture shows how to divide the clay up for all the chicken bits!
Stick on the chickens head and smooth it. Dont forget to scratch and wet both sides of the join first. Shape the little pinch of clay into a beak and stick it on.
Make the other balls onto wing, tail, comb and feet shapes and stick them on. Use something like a pencil to make the eyes. The blunt end for the outer circle and the point in the middle. Now you have a stay at home chicken!!.
Here are some instructions for making a mouse with a solid body. This is fine for airdry clay but not a good idea if the mouse is going to be fired in a kiln. Instructions for a mouse with a hollow body that can be fired are given in a later post.
If you use about 150 grams of clay. Your ball of clay from Dipsy dragon will make 2 mice or other animals.
**Remember to scratch and wet both surfaces of the clay when you stick bits of clay to each other**
Roll you clay into a ball and divide into quarters. Use 3/4 of the clay for the body and 1/4 for the other bits. Roll both the 3/4 and 1/4 pieces into balls.
Roll one end of the larger body piece at one end to make it pointed for the nose. Divide the smaller piece into 4.
Use 1/4 of the small ball to make the feet. Divide this quarter into 2, roll each into a ball and flatten into mouse feet shapes and stick on the body (scratch and wet all the surfaces for sticking)
Roll each of the other three quarters into balls. Pinch two small balls from one ball for the eyes and stick these on the body. Mark on the nose and mouth.
Cut a ball in 2, roll each half into a ball and flatten to form round ears and stick on. Cut another ball in 2, roll each half into a ball and then a sausage and form arm and hand and stick on. Roll the last ball into a long sausage, thinner at one end, for the tail. Stick on the tail.And now you have a mouse!You can use an extra bit of clay to make a heart or anything else for the mouse to hold.
This chick is also based on a cone like the bunny in the last post. Start with two equal sized balls of clay.
Make one of the balls of clay into a cone shape by rolling it first into a fat sausage and then rolling one end to make it pointy.
Make a hole in the end of the cone with a pencil and move the pencil around to make the hole bigger. Slap the cone on its bottom to make sure its flat.
Divide the other ball of clay into 4 and roll each into a ball. Two of the balls are for wings, one is for the head and the beak and the last one is divided into 3 for the two feet and the tail feathers.
Make the head into a ball and the beak into a triangle. Stick the beak on the head and pinch the head either side of the beak for the eye sockets. Dont forget to scratch and wet the surfaces that you are joining and wiggle the pieces into place to make sure they are stuck.
Take a tiny piece of clay from each wing piece, roll them into balls for the eyes and stick them in place. Make the feet and tail pieces into triangles, squash the feet flat and stick at the sides towards the front. Stick on the tail at the back shaping to look like tail feathers.
Make each of the wing pieces into squashed triangles and stick on at the sides. I used and extra piece of clay to make an Easter egg for the chick to hold.
Just out of a Raku firing glazed with red crackle glaze and white crackle features.
He is 20cm tall and selling at a bargain price of £32. Can be posted.
Fired in our electric kiln to cone 05 1046 degrees. Reduction in straw on a bed of sawdust. Peter was disappointed he wasn’t shiny – I’ll have to do some in the Spectrum Cosmic Copper glaze!!
The larger dragons have taken about 2 hours each to make so I need to make some smaller simpler ones. I wanted to time how long it took but had people in the shop buying things!! Probably between 30 mins and 1 hour.
