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Sculpting a Lily in Clay

For my birthday last week, my mum and I visited a pottery studio where we had the entire workspace to ourselves. We sat with little round spinning tables, surrounded by shelves adorned with a beautiful collection of messy sculpting tools, clay and pottery waiting to be painted and collected.

I decided to recreate a beautiful flower I'd seen in my garden throughout lockdown; a Lily. I've really loved the colour orange recently and the thought of later having a beautiful burst of orange in my house, where I could see it every day, really excited me. Plus I reckon it's going to be a positive reminder of my time spent in my garden in 2020.

Last year I made a sunflower in clay and so I imagined it wouldn't be too tricky to make another flower...Then I sat at the table and had the fear. I hadn't made anything in clay in a whole year and I guess I was a tad overwhelmed by being out of the house for longer than a trip to the shop.

The most gorgeous flower I've ever laid my eyes on!

I started off making a short tubular base in clay, then drawing a rough leaf shape on paper and using this as a template to cut out my Lily's petals. Next, I played with the petal shape, softening the edge with my fingers and gently bending the petal to form curves. Then I simply cross-hatched, with water and a metal comb, the points of the clay that would meet to secure each leaf.
For the middle stamens (admittedly I had to google that- I was going to type stems) I rolled thin sausages and pressed them together, then fitted them into the middle hole using the cross-hatch method. To keep the petals upright I had to use the excess clay to make mini precarious shelves. 
Later on, I'll need to take these off with assistance. But to be honest I actually quite like the stacks holding up the petals. 


That was all there was to it really. If I'd thought about it I probably would have made a tutorial however I'm pleased that I was simply in the moment. 
The process of making the clay Lily was near enough as delicate as the actual flower. Part's would drop off or tilt, but I had a lot of fun making it.

The end result reminds me ever so slightly of tentacles- the Stamen didn't stand as upright as I intended but I like the quirk.

As ever, thank you for reading. I'll be sure to update my blog with the finished clay Lily- as long as it cooks without major injury in the kiln. Fingers crossed!

All the love and keep safe,

Buddy xx

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