As you probably remember, I’ve been spending a lot of time on my new hobby, which is sculpting. I’ve never done it before, but I took a class on Thursday nights and thoroughly enjoyed it. My first project was a rack of ribs that I sculpted on a little cutting board. The second one took most of the time and I’m still working on it now. It’s a gargoyle. A cat gargoyle. You can see from the picture what it supposed to look like.
This weekend I started on the second phase. First phase is getting the general shape which you can see from the photo. With a solid sculpture, though you must hollow it out, otherwise it will crack when you fire it in the kiln. Once hallowed out, it’s kind of like those chocolate bunnies you get it at Easter (personally, I prefer my chocolate bunnies to be of the SOLID persuasion).
Considering how much time and effort I put into that stupid sculpture , I was not anxious to take that wire and cut it up in the segments to be hollowed out with a spoon. What if I drop it on the floor? What if I can’t seem to get it back together again?
Well, I took me about two hours, but I was able to cut it up and hollow it out and reclaim about eight pounds of Clay, which was awesome. But the thing that I really had to keep in my mind was that I wasn’t destroying this it, I was making it stronger. I wanted it to come out perfectly from its firing.
This week, think about some of the processes that you’ve put into place. Are they still relevant? Do you suppose now is the time to take a good look at what we’ve always accepted as the way to do it and maybe rethink it? In some instances, you may have to break it down and hollow it out just to rebuild it and make it stronger.
That’s the lesson I don’t want you to forget this week: sometimes you have to deconstruct in order to reconstruct.
Ps. I will share photos when it’s totally finished and glazed.