Make Your First Figurative Clay Sculpture

Clay sculpture is one of the oldest forms of arts. Japanese, Chinese, Native Americans, Indians have created these artistic forms since time immemorial as evidenced by archeological findings. Every civilization on every corner of the Earth have a history of clay sculpture.

Nowadays, artists and amateurs like to learn the art of making clay sculptures . Modern-day figurative clay sculptors use various glazing techniques. Some prefer not to apply glaze at all, before firing their creations in kilns. Wood-burning, oil and gas kilns are some of the processes in firing clay sculptures. This makes the figurative clay pieces incredibly hard and makes them resistant to water.

Being a poet is not an easy task. A poet, as we all know, is one who writes poetry. He produces a written expression of emotion or ideas that is arranged gracefully by using words and verse. All the poets channel their inspiration by having a muse. In Greek Mythology, the nine daughters of the god Zeus and Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory, are the muses who are believed to inspire not only poets, but also other artists in different disciplines.

Calliope is the muse of history. Her sisters; Melpomene is an inspiration to tragedy while Terpsichore urges choral songs and dance. The beautiful Thalia is the muse of comedy and Urania is the radiance of astronomy. Euterpe instigates lyric poetry and Polyhmnia gives visions to sacred poetry. Clio is the patron of history and heroic poetry and Erato, whose name means passionate, is the mostfamous of the muses. She is the muse of lyric love poetry and is usually depicted holding a lyre.

Cebuano poets and poetess' have their own local muses too. These ephemeral beings are the source of inspiration for them who can whip up a poem when their muses visit them in their dreams and waking moments.
This time, they tried their hand on figurative clay art making. For the first time, fingers that are normally used in weaving verses that prompt you to look into your soul, were used in kneading clay and forming a three dimensional figure that can be called an art form. This was an experiment in introducing artists to other interdisciplinary art forms in the hopes of widening their horizon.

How can one mold a full moon that bites the lovers and sadness that is kept in a jar? Words are indeed very malleable compared to the 2 kilos of clay that is placed on the table in front of them. The table was slowly filled with twisted lumps of clay; some grotesques with misshapen limbs, lopsided shaped with no side straight or deliberate and pleasing in its curves. However, their muses must have appeared to them since the figures later developed into artistic forms.