Handmade owl salt and pepper shakers

This is our recent creation with the "Keramikal" material — owl salt and pepper shakers. I wrote about this material in other posts, for instance in "Hanukkiyah". Here the material is used in its two natural colours. Put a cloth on the surface you're going to work on and let's start.

Base

We're going to make a plug in the bottom of each shaker, so a cavity to accommodate the plug's protruding part will be needed. In order to make it put a coin or another similar flat object under the cloth. Roll out a bit larger circle of the material over the coin and cut a hole using a pen cap, for example (for a plug).

Body

We used the coiling technique to build a hollow body up to the neck area. It's a well-known pottery technique, when a piece is build up by rolling clay coils and stacking them one on top of another.

Head

Roll a ball, then form make it hollow with an opening in its bottom. Diameter of the opening equals the diameter of the opening in the body. Attach the head to the body while aligning the two openings.

Finishing

Finally, shape eyes (small balls), "eyebrows" (rolls), wings, tail and attach everything. Using a toothpick pierce holes. Add "feathers" texture with a modelling tool.

The rest of the process depends on the material used. For "Keramikal": dried for two days, fired in a domestic oven at 170 C (approx. 338 F), applied transparent coating. Cut plugs out of wine corks.