The drying process

Over the two weeks of the Easter holidays my horse and rider have been left with two sheets of plastic laid loosely over them in order for them to dry out. Such a big piece needs at least the two weeks in order to be dry enough to fire. I really just hope it will be ok left like this unattended for the two weeks and there won't be any horrible cracks when I return...

Mathematical Construction

For each individual part, I measured each dimension on a small photo of the original piece and proportionally enlarged the measurements to the maximum size that would fit in the kiln. Unfortunately though, even though I had worked very accurately in the beginning, when I began to put the pieces together, some stretching occurred with the legs which made them slightly out of proportion. I later rectified this though with balancing out other parts. Hence, unfortunately I cannot say that I have created an exactly proportionate enlarged reproduction of the original but it is as close a representation as I could manage for my first attempt!

 The legs, body, tail and the body of the figure were all made using coiled and so are hollow.

 The head of the horse and rider, I modelled solid and later hollowed them out.

 Following further examination of the original piece, I realised that in fact the horse only had one bump where his legs and tail met instead of three so I had to remodel this part.

This is the piece finished before any surface treatment was added. I made a block of plaster and with modelling tools, dented the surface to make a rough, stone-like texture. This I pressed into the finished piece to create a textured stone-like surface. I experimented with various oxides on green damp clay in order to try to reproduce a colour that would echo the sandy tones of the original.

A Hunt Museum Souvenir

Our current project is inspired by aspects of The Hunt Museum. Our brief is to state our standing on the meaning of the term 'souvenier' and inspired by an object or gropup of objects from The Hunt, create our own souvenir in the form of a contemporary piece.
For this project I am defining a souvenir as: a reproduction of another object, to take away to remind you of the original.
Having viewed the various varied collections of objects and artefacts in The Hunt, I chose a very small ceramic statuette of a horse and rider dating from possibly 1800 B.C. and of Hittite origin. I love the simplicity of the piece and how the horse and rider have been stylised. I think this piece has real character the way the horse stands still and straight as the little figure wraps his arms around the his neck, holding on so tightly.

I decided to create a reproduction of this piece but much larger. I wanted to highlight this little figurine and create a piece that people would notice and be able to touch and interact with, in contrast to the original which sits on a shelf in a glass cabinet and often goes unnoticed to viewers.