I am so intrigued by my newest addition to my new studio. This turtle showed up in our fenced yard. She is a red eared slider. In doing some research this turtle could be quite old maybe even 10-15 years and is about 9-10” long. One night she showed up at the fence line. The next day I looked for her and she was under the brugmansia, 20 minutes later she disappeared. Then my husband found her in the pond. She comes out and suns on the sides, of the pond. When I can I sit on the new studio porch and watch her. It is a great way to relax. I tried to make her a bathing spot by piling a flat rock inside of the pond, but the builders and the very loud compressors they use seems to bother her.

The day before yesterday I was feeding the fish in the upper pond. And what did I see? The slider. I thought she must have had quite a little trip the night before, you see this upper pond is about 15 feet, an uphill trip, and has two waterfalls in between the two ponds.
I have not named her but I have thought about the name Techla. It was my grandmothers name and though “Tecla the turtle” does not exactly roll off your tongue it is fun to say.
Maybe grandmas other name, Tilly would be better. “Tilly the turtle. I love it!

The new studio without doors.

The new studio is so close to being finished. I wish it were done and I could move in. More than that, I wish I could be working on Patsy in the new studio. I may stop working on Patsy until I move her in. It is not unusual to move a sculpture in the process of sculpting or after finishing the sculpture. Many sculptors do this when it is finished and when they need to send it to the foundry to go into the bronze process; however, I want to get Patsy to the new studio because the feeling of the place is so good, where as the feeling of the other place is getting drearier and drearier by the day. I am not sure if it is the packing or knowing it is going to be torn down. It takes a lot of my energy not to have those “feelings’ transfer to the clay. I think it is best if I hold off on Patsy for the next 3 weeks and work on her when the move is final. It will be so refreshing and hopefully I can get the clay to hold that refreshing feeling. Once again, I am not sure if anyone else feels these things when they look at the clay, but I do.

Yesterday while over at the old studio I walked past the clay of Patsy’s torso. I must talk to Howard about changing the position of her legs. It just does not feel like Patsy. I feel she should have her legs crossed and her head cocked slightly. It seems to be something I have seen in several photos. This pose looks too stiff this way. Changing the pose at this point is a bit of a problem, but not impossible especially if it makes it “feel” better. I’ll have to cut off the clay, dig down to the armature and readjust that before proceeding.

Here is a photo of the progress on the new building.

The pose of a clay sculpture

I have begun to put clay on the torso. The arms are just wires, covered with tinfoil and then with clay. The feet and legs are the same. The sculpture does not look like much right now, but it is on the way. I still am concerned about the feet. They just do not feel right, maybe her legs should be crossed?