Green Penguin

I made this penguin the same night I sculpted baby blue penguin so they’ve always been together through each step of the process. Although they were the first pair of jars to be sculpted, they were the last to be glazed.

This jar went through two rounds of waxing and glazing with an additional bisque firing in between to burn off the first waxing mistake. Since the lid and the body don’t have the same circumference, I used a pencil to trace an outline to get a clean band of unglazed surface to prevent getting a fused jar.

For the underglaze, I wanted to try out a different colour combination with a cooler and brighter yellow on the beak and feet. This was different from the warm golden yellow I used for the baby blue penguin. The one thing that I forgot was to apply white underglaze to the face and belly of both jars which resulted in less contrast than I’d like. Because painting is so time consuming and white underglaze is more expensive, I decided to switch from bmix to porcelain clay later down the line. That way I could get a bright white in any unglazed areas.

Also, you might’ve noticed that this is the only jar so far that has a sharper angle on the head lid. I was trying to make a cylindrical jar but my walls slanted inwards. It’s proportionally closer to the baby blue penguin with its short and wide lid so I decided this jar into a larger penguin instead.