Hand-made clay wall sculptures, Phish I and II with gold, by Tammy Vitale of Tam’s Originals

As promised here are two more of of the fish I am currently making to build my stock up to at least 100.  Which means I probably need to make about 150 since in addition to having storage stock, I need some for each of my galleries and shops as Xmas is coming (yes, I know it’s August, but it’s time to start thinking ahead on stock right now) and I want to be sure to have enough. (If you click on the photos, you have a much better view of what the fish actually look like.  As I mentioned before, since I am selling my house my usual staging area is all clean and spackled and so I am reduced to photographing wherever I can.  This time it was on top of the washing machine.)

I have just started adding the gold to these fish.  Before I just stained them and put on the chinese red metallic.  But I like the gold and so from here on out will probably be making them like this instead of the way I did in the past: here on the right. Lately I’ve just been making fancy fins instead of stamping them, too.  This is because I have acquired a new product which is supposed to make crystals independent of buying them in a crystal glaze.  They are dry and you sprinkle them onto wet glaze to set them and then cook.  I purchase several different colors – cobalt blue, pewter and a green – and am trying them out with some new underglazes I also bought (I am particularly after a nice cobalt blue that will fire at lower temperatures.  I have a great one for higher temperatures but I don’t even keep that range of clay around anymore, so I need to find a glaze that fits my low-fire clay and still gives an amazing blue).

When I was going to Goddard for my master’s, I chatted with a student who was getting her MFA (Master in Fine Arts).  Her assignment was to do the "same" painting 100 times and she was displaying the results, which were fascinating because you could follow the trajectory of the sameness along with the differences.  I’m finding the same thing with my fish.  When I started, I was more particular about the beginning shape to which I added fins and embellishments.  Lately, I have just cut out shapes from the clay, which gives me better use of my clay without having to reroll it out (which saves time, which equals, as we all know, money), and then figured out what kind of fish the shape wants to be.  That is fun and leads to very different fish.  Just concentrating on the fins makes a difference too.  I find that the finished product has much more visual "movement" to it than my original fish.  Along with Alice, I am one of the most curious of all to see where the work will go next!

Thought for the day:  "…when it comes to finding out about new jobs – or for that matter, new information, or new ideas – ‘weak ties’ are always more important than strong ties.  Your friends, after all, occupy the same world that you do.  They might work with you, or live near you, and go to the same churches, schools, or parties.  How much, then, would they know that you wouldn’t know?  Your aquaintances, on the other hand, by definition occupy a very different world than you.  They are much more likely to know something  you don’t."  Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point:  How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference