Seahorse

I found a seahorse tutorial on the Artclay website in one of the quarterly newsletters, seahorses are one of the animals that I like a lot, so I couldn't resist having a go at making one.

The first thing was to make a cork clay shape of the seahorse, let that dry for at least 24 hrs. draw the design in pencil onto the cork then follow the lines using syringe type clay.

The tutorial left the design open like basket weave, but I decided to cover the lines of clay with paste clay, applying thin coats drying between each coat.

The eye is a 3mm. cubic zirconia.

I made templates for the fins, textured them then cut them out of the silver clay, after drying I attached them to the body

Here he is after firing...... very handsome!

After a couple of hours polishing by hand and in the tumbler, oxidisation with liver of suphur I polished him back so the detail stands out, this is the result and I am very pleased with him.

Just one more thing I forgot to mention.... the brooch fastening I used a fine silver brooch pin which went on ok, I had to build on the back to create a base for the two ends of the pin, one of them came off while I polished it, obviously I didn't take care to add enough syringe to the joint, I eventually managed to solder it on after three or four attempts. Oh and I put the ends of the pin on the wrong way round. that's a mistake that I shouldn't make again?

This project has been good for me to complete, it has enabled me to practice a few different techniques.