How to Make a Delicate Flower Sculpture with Colored Porcelain Clay Linda Southwell

Flower Sculpture

My sculptures are made using white porcelain and a darker and lighter shade of a colored porcelain (1). Join two white porcelain pinch pots to make a ball. Flatten the base so that it is stable. Let it firm to leather hard. Pierce a hole where the center of the flower will be (2). 

Roll coils of increasing thickness: thinnest in the darkest colored clay and the thickest in white (3). Break the coils up into one-inch-long (2.5-cm) pieces (4). Smooth the clay between your palms so they look like lozenges. Press one end flat to create a petal shape (5). Dip your fingers in water and smooth the petal even thinner. 

Make approximately 60 large white petals first. Make approximately 30 medium, lighter petals, and finally approximately 20 small, darker petals last (see 6). Allow all of these to firm up so they hold their shape. 

Cut the thick end of all the petals with a potter’s knife (7). Score the ball shape around the pierced hole and add slip. Apply slip to the bottom of the smallest petals and attach to the ball in a ring around the hole, smoothing into place (8). Stagger how you attach the next ring of petals, so they fill the gap between the two on the ring before (see 9). 

After the third ring, switch to the medium petals. Add two or three rings. Before adding the larger outer petals, transfer your work onto a kiln shelf so that it is easier to move. Finally, add the largest, white petals. Use a soft, wet brush to clean any bits off (10). 

I dry my flower sculptures slowly and under plastic initially to prevent cracking. Once fully dried they are once fired to 2282°F (1250°C), unglazed so that the beauty of the clay can be appreciated.