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Saturday, April 22, 2017

Creating from broken things,

 In addition to making jewelry I work in ceramics. One of my favorites is antique German dolls and figures. I recently acquired a box of Angels from Germany. They had been discarded in the 1800's at a ceramics factory. They were discovered and dug up and have come to me.
Each is a bit different . Some have heavy glazes that cover some details. Others have thin glaze and sharper details. As a mold is used they do lose detail. 
 These were Holy Water fonts but the bowls have been broken off. They do have holes on the back to hang them on a wall.
 Now what would you do with them? First you could re-purpose them and just hang the piece on the wall. Perhaps if you have a rotary tool with a diamond cutoff wheel you could remove the rough bottom to make them look better. How about making a mold? Find a Cardboard box that is 1-3 inches deep fill the bottom with non hardening oil clay and press the figure into the clay slightly. Spray the figure and the box with cooking spray and pour plaster of paris into the box. When it has set in an hour or overnight for more strength remove the box and clay and carefully pull the original. You can now use the mold to make reproductions. Those could be used for mixed media art. Or pour liquid clay slip into the mold and make a new piece.
I do that and fire the clay as Raku or use porcelain Precious metal clay could be pushed into the mold and you could create metal jewelry with the result.

Really so many things could be created. Even restored pieces could be made.

Of course you can find these for sale at my Etsy shop Oscarcrow. Come take a look


https://www.etsy.com/listing/512638206/vintage-antique-excavated-german