Often a simple decision can lead to a long and difficult process. When I decided to make an African Giraffes teapot, I had already modeled South American Jaguars; Asian Giant Pandas; Antarctic King Penguins; African Elephants; African Highland Gorillas; African Black Rhinoceri; Hawksbill, Green, and Black Sea Turtles; Central American Keel-Billed Toucans; Pacific Puffins; Australian Kangaroos and Koala Bears; and Madagascar Ring-tailed Lemurs and Chameleons. I still have a stack of animal picture books two feet high which I used for reference. The giraffes were the most difficult sculpting project I attempted, especially the juvenile giraffe sitting on the lid. I gave up trying to find a picture of a giraffe sitting down, and used a picture of an oryx to see how the legs folded and how they were proportioned. Modeling each giraffe figure took as long as making the ring teapot. When I biscuit-fired the Teapot, the large giraffe figure’s neck warped away from the top of the ring.

It took a full day to glaze each figure with the distinctive giraffe camouflage pattern. To make sure the giraffe’s neck bonded to the top of the Upright Ring in the glaze firing, I had to place ceramic supports under the Teapot base to tilt the Teapot back far enough so the giraffe figure’s neck would lean against and glaze-bond to the top of the Ring. After glazing the giraffe figures I glazed the Teapot Ring with our green-brown matt glaze to suggest the African Giraffe’s diet of tall tree leaves. I was very pleased with this finished teapot, but I realized I was investing a lot of time and energy in technical and zoological animal figure sculpting issues, and I needed to be working more directly on creative ceramic art ideas. Making this very challenging African Giraffes Upright Ring Teapot helped move me in a more abstract compositional direction.

17” Tall x 13” Wide x 4” Deep
Cone 5 oxidation Firing
This Teapot was purchased for a private collection Roslyn, New York.