Last week, hastily I turned a lump of clay into a semblance of a bird,  then wrapped it to slow its drying. When I took it out this morning I decided to finish sculpting it with no help from any tools. As ways the goal is to become a better sculptor.

The clay is firm but still has some flex to it. I was able to change the overall shape with careful squeezing compression with two hands. It was possible to remove a small amount of clay from the (unreal) tail section, making eyeballs for the lady’s head, but I then faced the challenge of affixing them, and I didn’t want to use saliva, finding the prospect literally distasteful. Luckily I had a small amount of perspiration around my temples, and I harvested as much of it as I could, and now I need a shower. 🙂

Fingernails came in handy for making curves curvier and sun shapes less ambiguous. I’m not too obsessed with perfection–Nature herself is loaded with imperfections–but it improves a work of art to reduce, if not eliminate, internal inconsistency.

Here’s bird-eyedly looking at you, Friends!