Pottery Time: Hand Building a Fairy House and Furniture

I have been back in the studio at the art center for both a hand building pottery class with my daughter as well as open studio time to make some new creations. I thought I would share with you some of the things I have been making.

This fairy house was made by hand building. I made it with my daughter during a class we took. She designed the fairy house herself with minimal guidance from me. I actually went in to this class with her thinking we were going to make a very different looking house, but her vision had changed. 

She chose to made a fairy house that looked like a tree stump.

This is the view from the top or the veranda with the furniture she hand built herself. 

Another view of the top without the furniture to see the rings in the stump and you can see how she designed the sides to provide a railiing around the veranda that looks like the bark that was broken off. 

This is just a close up of the furniture she made. She still wants to make some pretend food to go on the table.

These next 5 pictures are all close ups of the sides so that you can see all the details from all sides.

This is the front and we have a vine with flower going up the side. There is a door that is open and a window hole. You can also see she made a snail and mushroom at the bottom of the steps.

On this side you can see a couple more window holes and a small window with panes, as well as a couple more mushrooms.

This is the backside and you can see the large window with panes. You can also see how we carved out detail to make it look more like bark. Many of the window and doorway we glazed with a color (not browns) to add some color for interest.

Another side view with a couple more window holes and a mushroom (different color than the others) and you can see the door is open.

Just another close up of the front and here it is easier to see the glaze painted in the windows and doorway.

This is what the bottom looks like so that you can see how it was constructed and is hollow inside. The base was created by slab rolling out some clay and then draping it over a mold. From there the rest was created by making coils and forming the body of the body of the fairy house. Next the body was stuffed with newspaper and we slab rolled out the top of the fairy house. So, that is the basic construction of this piece.