Well, phew!  After several months of work, I’ve finally finished this piece.

I call it “Friends” and consider it a great success simply because it makes me smile. 🙂

(As usual, click on any of the pics to see a larger version.)

It all started back in May when I decided to take the Ways to Wow class over at Voila.

One of our earliest assignments was to collect a variety of images that appealed to us on an emotional level.  This would help decided what kind of emotion we wanted our pieces to convey.  Above is a screen shot of my Pinterest board of these images, you’ll find the whole board here.

After studying all the collected pics, I decided to go with joy/fancifulness/fantasy for my project.

Our next assignment was a deepening technique project.  I’d just replaced my old “thumb-breaker” extruder with one with a crank handle (approximately one-and-one-half million times easier to use!) and made several samples playing with my new toy tool.

Naturally, some of these are more successful than others, but as Christine (the teacher) said, it’s amazing how prolific one can be when just playing.

The next assignment was to choose pieces that best expressed our chosen emotion.

We then combined them with bits and pieces from a technique tray I’d assembled earlier.

The combination of techniques I found to express joy/fantasy were color blends, creating texture with extrusions and textured natural shapes such as leaves and flowers.

It was fascinating to see the results of pulling out items from my technique tray and noting how they work with the sample technique pieces I’d made.

Although I really like the dragon scale piece above in combination with the glass bits and think it could be something to come back to someday, the swirls, flowers, leaves and blends seemed to truly sing together.

Next we were told to go make something based on our chosen techniques.

Ulp.

I first tried to make a small bowl consisting of coils of extruded ribbons of clay. My initial design was weak, however and they fell apart.

I reformed the baked coils into a shallower bowl shape and added resin and a small goldfish to make a little pond. Colorful flowers around the edge completed the design. I got lots of compliments on the little fish, which was actually made with a lot less thought than any other element in the design.

Christine had some very helpful suggestions and thought I should run with this as my final project.

At first I was going to have a fairy sitting by the side of the pond, but my attempts came out just terrible.

Then there was that light bulb moment. Well duh, a dragon, they are my thing after all.

And finally, here we are, all done.

Don’t they look just like two pals, hanging out?

So there’s a little glimpse into the creative process for ya.  I certainly learned a lot and hope to use these lessons to keep on improving my work.  🙂

Although the Voila class is now done, you can read through and work through the steps on your own any time, if  you’re interested.

Happy creating!

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