Lady Liberty - Update

I know it's been a while since I've last posted...my apologies.  However I have been busting my @$$ trying to get ready for Freedom Fest (that's NEXT WEEK!!! OMG!!!!).  Remember how I said I was going to be unveiling my finished Lady Liberty sculpture at Freedom Fest???  Well...its turned into a hail Mary sort of adventure...


 The first one I made, had an air pocket in the back and the back of her head sheared off....  And unfortunately, it was at an area where I couldn't repair it and have it still have the same aesthetics.  :(  At

this point, I was also working with creating paperclay to use for my sculptures to make them lighter in weight.  It had worked WONDERFULLy for the new dragon series I've been working on.  So I figured I'd use it for Lady Liberty, Take 2.  I also assembled/made her in many different sections so that I wouldn't be

constrained by the size of my small kiln.  Well....her shoulder decided to flake off after the bisque firing.  After consulting with my colleagues and fellow muddy buddies, I figured that my paper pulp content was likely too high.  

 *And a big THANK YOU goes out to my son for taking the pictures of the first two Lady Liberties in their final resting place*  :)

And that leads us to where I stand today.  I just finished Lady Liberty-Take 3, this morning.  Rather than risk another sloughing shoulder, she is made out of regular white stoneware that will be fired to ^6.  It has been raining all week, and we have rain on the forecast...this means that it is humid with high moisture content...meaning that my sculpture will likely take FOREVER to dry.  And this, my friends, just cannot do!.

I know I said no more updates regarding Lady Liberty until the reveal on August 9.  But I figured that this situation was just a tad different.  :)  Here's to hoping that the 3rd time is a charm, and she dries in time for me to bisque her and get the glazing done!!  Might be burning the candle from both ends for the next 9 days, but it will be worth it!  

What are your thoughts?  How do you handle disappointments when something goes wrong in your artistic endeavors?

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