A bird sculpture I made in creative therapy
My aim was to create a sculpture that reflects the way I dream to feel, which is peaceful, free and determined to find purpose. I also included some pictures from when I just finished sculpting, before drying.
The tip of one of the wings broke off during the drying process. My therapist said it would be better to fire the broken off tip separately, so I could reattach it after the biscuit firing with a special paste they have (biscuit glue? I'm not sure if that's the word), so that's what we did. It took a lot of my patience to reattach the piece in a way that it would stay and not break off again, but it was worth it. We then fired it a second time to secure the piece. After that I painted it with a glaze called "oil slick", which was a powder I had to mix with water.
It came out of the kiln after the glaze firing this morning and when my therapist gave it to me, it was still warm. You can still subtly see the break on the wing, which I'm actually kind of loving because of the symbolism. I got a bit emotional seeing it finished after working on it for so long. I'm so proud of it, so I wanted to share it here.
Clay is such a transformative material, with having to go through all of the different stages and then at the end not fully knowing how a glaze will turn out. It's exciting. It was my fourth time working with clay and it has become my favorite material to work with in therapy.