Saturdays With Sharleen - From Inspiration to Creation

I like the twisted shape of this tree trunk

For my Saturday post this week, I thought I would do another post showing how I took something from nature, that I found inspiring, and created a ceramic pendant with a unique design. I carved the design into linoleum, which is my newest thing.

The clay is rolled out into a sheet, which I make thicker than normal because when I roll it over the lino again, it is going to get thinner. Clay that is somewhat dry works best. If the clay is too wet and a little sticky, I spray the lino with cooking spray first (and if you have never used this in the kitchen, it is WONDERFUL!)

After rolling the clay over the carving, I put plastic wrap over the design and cut with cookie cutter. Sometimes I do a free hand cut out around the design instead. Free hand cut outs are more work because the edges require a lot of smoothing.

I call this design Wind Swept Tree and both of these examples are raku fired.