Making a leaf
Making a leaf from a slab of clay
I made this large leaf sculpture for the dining room at Thornhill in Lexington, Virginia. Starting by rolling out two large slabs of clay, I joined them together, cut out the leaf design and sculpted and stretched the clay. From another slab I created a hollow tube which became the stem. Then I used my wheel to turn a ball of clay into an acorn.
is about three feet long.
After rolling out a slab of clay and cutting the outline, I invert the leaf, stretch the clay and leave it overnight to hold the shape I want. (and this one is heavy!)
Each day I carve and shape the leaf a little more and cover it overnight to slowly let it dry just the way I want it.
The carving and sculpting are nearly done here. For a large piece like this the forming and drying takes about two weeks.
Actually these are not the same sculpture, but they show you how it looks both before I start applying the glazes and then after the glaze is fired.
I apply the glazes with a paint brush. The red bowl on the right holds the red glaze (which looks white.) The bowl above the sponge holds the tan glaze.
It's ready for the second firing, in my gas kiln in a reduction atmosphere to 2370 degrees. You've probably heard that the raw glazes don't look like the fired colors.
Leaf Sculpture