I decided I wanted to have an animal tree done for my BFA crit, so I spent a lot of time glazing little creatures.  I did a lot of detail, so glazing took a long time.  Luckily it did not take as many animals to construct the tree as I had anticipated, so I have enough left to do another one.  I find glazing very therapeutic, so, honestly, time flies by, particularly when glazing things as cute as these.

I have some shots of it stacked in the kiln.  It was about 18 inches tall when all said and done.  There were a few animals that seemed a little precarious, so I was very worried about them sliding off.  However, my test run did not waver, so I had high hopes.  I built some slanted walls out of kiln shelves and stacked around bricks and a lot of patties just in case.

And, this is what I saw when I opened the kiln.  Apparently, the bisque animals I had collected were not a high fire porcelain and it seems they melted and turned into some sort of glaze material.  Awesome.  The melting and deforming of the dogs and elephant resulted in the vast majority of the animals sliding and falling onto the floor of the kiln.  I kind of anticipated the squirrel and an elephant to slide and fall when the glaze melted, but I honestly never even considered that some of the pieces might literally melt.  I did test fire some of the little animals I found, but not the bisque ware.  That was a fatal error. 

I was really disappointed in all the time that was seemingly wasted getting this ready that I felt I had to try to make something of it.  I spent hours on Saturday piecing the shards of animals back together.  There are parts of it that make something of an interesting sculpture, but I am afraid I could not show it at a crit.  I did learn some things that I like.  I actually like some of the animals at the bottom as if they fell off.  I wish it had worked.  I am going to apply some mediums I purchased to see how they react to ceramic.  Perhaps I will be able to use them for applying rhinestones, or in some instance when I need some more integration with the piece.

Now I am super bummed because I wanted to have something of my new direction to show at my crit.  I poured some more animals today and reserved a kiln so that I might have a chance to make another one before hand.  I am afraid it won't be possible though.  If I load a bisque Wednesday, then a cone 7 on Saturday I could have it out Monday, in time for my crit on Tuesday, which I decided I was going to do.  Unfortunately I am having some really bad back problems right now.  It flares up from time to time.  It has been hurting since Thursday night.  I was going to throw a base tonight, but there is no way I can throw right now with the pain in my back.  I am having trouble moving around and it hurts to even just sit still.  I am really disappointed.  If my back feels better tomorrow I might be able to pull it off.  But, I have my outline for art history due Wednesday morning, which throws another wrench in the plan.  I have it most of the way done, but it needs some more work.  A few hours at least.  I feel foolish because I am working so hard in there.  It doesn't really matter because nothing is ever good enough.  It is rather disheartening.  It makes me feel inadequate.  In any other class I would have had a perfect score on everything, but my grade is not reflecting that.  I have been doing well, but I have to work at least twice as hard to get not quite as good grades as usual, and it is taking away time I need to spend in the studio.  I am a really hard worker and I take pride in my good grades.  But, this class really makes me feel not so good about it because I am working so hard, and I do not feel my grades are rewarding my hard work.  And all I want to do is ceramics, and think about senior seminar.  It sucks.  But, I have to do it.  And I will just feel worse if I do not give it my best.  I wish I could work some more on my outline tonight but I think my pain pill for my back is starting to kick in and I don't think I would do the best job in that case.......  I hope my back feels better tomorrow.
I might make a mold of a base since I can't really throw with my back.  Perhaps that will work.......  But, in time?