Tropical Waters and Turtles

Nothing makes you think of tropical places faster than winter slipping across the landscape. Now in all fairness, Victoria is not the place most think of when they think of winter, but we still get cold and dark and sunny beaches always sound nice. The idea originated with a friend wanting me to make something with turtles, anything, as long as there were turtles.

Never having sculpted a turtle, let alone even knowing exactly how all of their parts fit together, soon found me browsing through tens of turtle pictures. Turtles on beaches, turtles in the ocean, turtles on land, turtles sculptures, turtle photos... you get the idea.

Turtles became a focal point until I could draw one with my eyes closed. It soon became evident though that my favourite type of turtles were the ones that inhabited turquoise blue tropical waters where the rays of the sun danced on the white sands of the ocean floor.

I made a number of sketches and finally narrowed it down to five that I would try and carve. Once carved, they were fired and then turned into stamps. Not all worked well, some didn't make the right impression, others were too deep and some not deep enough. More stamps and more trial and error, finally settled on two that were looking really good.

I didn't want to end with just the turtles, wanted something else to set the scene. The ideas flowed and so did the bubbles, and then the eel grass. Soon the turtles had their own private little underwater paradise. The next conundrum came after the first pieces were bisqued - what glazes to use to get the effect I had in my mind.

In the end each mug is finished with multiple layers of four different glazes. Now everytime I use one, it lets my mind wander to tropical places and sunny faces, where turtles swim leisurly through the crystal clear blue waters.