I made two moulds for slip casting spheres in two sizes, one the size of Christmas tree baubles and the other a little bouncy ball size. This was to echo the two sizes of gel balls I had previously used in my object. Unfortunately the small spheres didn't work out as well as I had hoped. the hole in the top of the mould was too small to let the clay run out and so they eneded up being almost solid and not properly spherical. The larger size was very successful though. I kept the walls quite thin, leaving the stoneware slip only in the mould for 7 minutes before pouring it out. This meant I could carve out pieces and was left just with a lovely delicate shell. Looking at the reflections of light in my gell balls, I carved out pieces that echoed this and achieved some really nice shapes.
I painted shellac on some of the spheres to create contrasting areas of low and high relief. This burned off in the bisque firing. It created lovely sharp edges and contours.
