Frogs are one of my absolute favorite animals and I’ve made a few different clay versions of them over the years. The last version was a small three dimensional “frog prince” that I made within the last couple of months. It really motivated me to create a larger version. I had not worked on a large piece since my foxes in early 2020 and this frog ended up being even larger than the individual foxes.
I began with two large pinch pots that I sealed together. I was originally going to create a small-to-medium sized frog but I decided to just challenge myself and go for a large frog. I used a red clay that a friend had given me – I normally use a white clay body because I paint underglazes onto the surface – but I wanted to change it up.
Once I had the large egg shape for the body, I rolled four long cylinders that I shaped and attached to the body for arms and legs. I added an additional pinch pot to shape the head and mouth. More clay was added for eyes and in areas that needed to be thick. I knew that when I started sculpting and carving, it would be much easier to take clay away, rather than having to add clay due to thinning or holes. When I was comfortable with the overall thickness, I started carving basic features – mouth, eyes, legs, arms, feet, toes. I had several reference printouts with me and I knew I was going for a more garden frog look rather than a tree frog.
Once I felt comfortable with the overall shape (the nose was trickier than I had expected, I initially had it fairly narrow and realized it needed to be wider to be more accurate) I began carving and removing clay on the exterior of the frog. I began on a back leg, moved to its front mate and then worked on the other side – back leg and then front. I took my time with the toes and fingers and made sure to keep them attached and close together – if they became thin and detached, they could break easily at any stage of the build. I did not want the sides to match perfectly and be completely symmetrical – I wanted a more natural look.
I then carved out the eyes, mouth line, back, stomach, and sides. I added ears, nostrils, and began stamping and imprinting some textures. When I was comfortable with the basic overall external look and after letting the clay harden some (still moist but definitely not leather hard), I made holes to allow the air trapped inside to escape. The first hole I made had a super satisfying noise – I could hear the air escape! I loved that noise because it signaled to me that I had a solid build.
Now came the most stressful part of the make for me – safely and carefully flipping the frog over for extended amounts of time – so that I could carve out the bottom and thin the sides of the frog from the inside. I would loved to have kept a solid flat bottom (basically the frog belly) on the piece but I had no idea how thick the walls of the frog were and if the walls were too thick, then there would a very good chance the piece would not survive the firings. The only way for me to know and feel confident about the walls would be to open up the frog and physically feel the thickness of the structure.
I needed something soft and pliable but stable enough to flip the frog onto so that I could safely cut the bottom and carve the inside. I didn’t have an extra pillow of the perfect size, so I used a series of plastic bags that I could easily shift around to aline with the frog body. I opened up the bottom and began carving and cutting away layers to have thin yet stable walls. I was especially concerned with cutting through the extra layer I had created when I added the pinch pot head, I didn’t want air to be trapped in the head or the clay to be too thick.
I made myself sculpt and carve a little bit (which usually turned into longer periods of time) every day so that I wouldn’t get overwhelmed and could also regularly check the wetness of the clay – not let it dry out or get too moist. As I was carving out the inside, I kept a hand on the outside of the form to verify the thickness/thinness. I probably worked on carving the inside for 10 – 14 days. Once I was satisfied with the overall carving, I made sure to poke holes in case of trapped air pockets and in thicker areas (like the legs and arms). I finished off with some more stamping and texture.
I let the piece dry really slowly (probably 5-7 days), in order to avoid any cracking or breaking. I made sure to put the piece over a wire cookie rack so that the inside could dry, hopefully at a similar rate as the exterior of the frog. I gradually uncovered more and more of the piece over several days.
Images of the bottom with the opening, carving, and with signature and year.
Once the piece was bone dry, I began adding the underglaze. Since the clay body is red, I painted the exterior of the frog with three coats of white underglaze before adding the color. I thought this way I can get some true green coloring but still have the fun earthy red on the bottom and inside of the frog. I used grass green, yellow, and charcoal underglazes to paint the body.
I wanted a white and white-yellowish belly and throat, yellow eyes, and grass green with patches of darker green across the body. I wanted the toes, arms, and legs to have color variation as well – move from white and yellow at the toes, to green with darker green patches along the upper arms and legs. The underglaze colors look much brighter at this stage than how they will appear after the final firing.
I was absolutely thrilled when he made it through the bisque firing! This meant that the build was good and he was gonna make it through all the firings (unless something totally unforeseen happened)! YAY! So excited. <3
After the bisque firing, I added a black underglaze wash over the entire frog. I sponged it off and only kept the black color in textured areas. I then brushed on a clear glossy glaze to the belly, the toes, and the eyes. I thought a limited amount of gloss would give a more realistic look rather than glazing the entire piece glossy.
To say I’m thrilled with the final result is an understatement. I love how the colors came out – the brightness is perfect and the gradual changes from light to dark turned out better than I could have hoped! Somehow the body came out almost semi-gloss – not sure how that happened – I did not paint glaze on those areas. But I absolutely love it – the kiln gods definitely smiled down on my new friend!
