Owls have been having a big moment for the past several years. I think it took me moving out of a city apartment and into a neighborhood with wildlife to fully appreciate these incredible creatures. They are really gorgeous birds and once again I love creatures that eat pesky rodents. I’m also a big fan of nocturnal animals and I love hearing the owls and foxes at night (not a fan of the coyotes though).
I really wanted to create some clay owls that didn’t look like all the mass manufactured ceramic owls I was seeing at the store and online. So I like to think my owls have some personality – albeit a slightly derpy personality.
I started with low relief owl sculptures in 2015 and 2016, a tile in 2019, and then created three dimensional owl sculptures in 2020 and 2021. I’m not sure if I completely captured my vision, so this is an art subject I would like to revisit in the future.
I created the low relief sculpture owls in 2015 and 2016, this was shortly after I created several other animal masks/low relief sculptures. The previous animals had only focused on the animal heads and I really wanted to try creating some hanging animal sculptures that featured the entire body. I thought owls would be a great choice and that I wouldn’t get too hung up on recreating a perfect body to match the head.
I created newspaper moulds that I draped slabs of clay across – one initial slab for the body and head, and then I added additional slabs for the wings, eyes, and beak. I stamped impressions of various lines on the wings and head, and carved sections of the eyes and beak. I wasn’t looking for high realism – mostly just enjoying creating a new form, one that was fairly quick to create as well (nice bonus!). All of the owls have two holes in either side of the head so that I could wire and hang them. The first one I created (The one in the middle of the first row) was probably my favorite and I sold it to a friend. I seem to wrestle sometimes with the first piece being the most visually successful (in my eyes) and struggling to recreate it.
I started making low relief animal tiles in 2017. My early animal tiles had holes near the two upper corners that I then wired and hung. I moved on to creating tiles that had no holes and only required an easel for display. I made this owl tile in 2019. It’s currently living on my classroom windowsill.
I began sculpting three dimensional owls from pinch pots in 2020. I did several that were underglazed and then finished with clear glossy glaze and I did quite a few with the beautiful Amaco Celadon glazes. I don’t have a preference for either finishing technique for glazing these owls but again I think my personal favorite one is the first one – the blue one below.
