Jaci Dawn

Last weekend one of our friends gifted me with several unfinished clay creations he found in the trash bin. He works as a janitor at a local high school where the art teacher disposes of unclaimed half-finished creations (and sometimes finished but unclaimed pieces). These pieces of art are not necessarily “bad”, they just are unclaimed and not relevant to the instructor. The students moved on, got bored, or graduated. My friend, fortunately, has an eye for the beauty in the discards and he often gifts some to me.

It happened that since I posted about doing “art rescues” last week that three of the items he brought to me are some sort of animal, hence fitting into my theme. Before I get into the pieces, let me digress a little. A Creative friend of mine (“Creative” is a title, therefore capitalized) ran with the newest idea of additions to my artist “zoo” (see my other website, which has sadly not been updated in a year: twocrowfeatherwoman.com). She thinks I should display the rescues like one would display rescued pets, with a little blurb about their imagined past and their current adoption status (plus adoption fee). I like it.

We both decided I should have a name for this part of my zoo. She was going for an orphanage title, but I lean toward something akin to Miss Peregrine’s School for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. I’m leaning heavily toward “Miss Corvid” or “Miss Corvidae” either of which is a continuation of the Two crow Feather Woman theme for my artist’s studio name. If you feel inspired, please weigh in in the comments section.

Of the four items my friend gave me, the Dia de los Muertos mask was the least inspiring. My birthday falls on the Day of the Dead (November 2nd) so I should feel inspired, right? It’s just that all the masks I have seen were mundane. A quick search of images on the Internet showed me just how wrong my assumption was. The raw mask is missing some pieces of clay, but that is what makes it “fun”. I used the same tissue paper/liquid starch/varnish style I used in my previous blog.

The second item now… It was half-painted and I forgot to take “before” photos, so what I *did* do, was take “before” photos halfway through the project. Acrylic paint and varnish. Note: all of these items have been fired once, but I do not have access to a kiln, so I don’t worry about a second firing. I just paint and varnish.

I have a grandson who would love that, so it may become a birthday present.

The bear in a box was a little harder to wrap my head around. The Original Artist had a rough time with the front paws, leaving the left arm looking more like a stub than a paw.

I took apart a “fish hook” earring hook, snipped it to size, and hot-glues it into position for the hook. Aluminum foil glued down tight and a double coat of silver paint finished off the “hook” effect. Now paw, no problem. I now have a polar bear with a hook for a paw. I left the inside unfinished. I figure it will be a boy’s “treasure” box for found items like feathers, rocks, screws, nails, and robin’s egg shells. I might have a grandchild in mind as well.

The LAST item, now…

This was really rough: sharp edges on the handle and a gaping hole for the mouth. It looked like something a bored high school student would make, no care at all about the carving and the smoothing of edges, although this particular artist paid a great deal of attention to the eyes.

I got out the Dremel and gave all of the rough edges a light sanding. I created the teeth with air dry clay pressed into that gaping hole. The wart on the nose was a flaw in the original. Because it has only been fired once and I painted it with your garden variety of acrylic craft paints, it isn’t something you would want to drink out of (if you could, it isn’t actually very conducive to being an actual mug). It would make a great pencil holder or just something odd to sit on a shelf and gather dust while staring at you with that grimace on its face. I’m certain the Original Artist had something much “darker” in mind, but this is the cup rescued.

I think my “rescue zoo” is getting a good start.