After visiting a very large private school exhibition I was inspired to create these ceramic cats with my year 2/3's. The Owl and the Pussy Cat was the idea. You have already seen the owls so here are the cats. The heads are made with a small ball of clay (golf ball size). The body is made from a slightly larger ball of clay . Push thumb into ball of clay and gently squeeze it down around the thumb to shape body. Join on head with water or slip. Use a large skewer to slightly hollow out the inside of the head. Shape ears and nose. . Draw on nose and whiskers. Roll tiny balls of clay for eyes. We made small sockets first . Join eyes onto head with water. Roll a small tail and attach. I used a phillips head screw driver to texture the body. We did not bother with creating legs. After firing we painted the cats with a watered down acrylic paint. We used cobalt blue. Experiment with the dilution to get the desired result. The thinner it is the more translucent in appearance. I have used an aquamarine colour previously to create a celadon effect. Allow to dry and spray with a clear gloss varnish. I could also imagine this would be perfect for creating the gorgeous Egyptian Hippopotamus.
