This orb is in memory of my dog Ginger. She was my best friend growing up. I got her as an early birthday present before I was four. She died suddenly and nothing could have prepared me for the immense pain and loss that I felt. She was like my baby, my sister, my friend, and sometimes a mom. She would bring my favorite stuffed animal over to me when I was hurt; kept me safe when we walked around the neighborhood; chased off creepers; and always showed me love. Being part chow she would have blackout and not recognize anybody. Durng these she would turn agressive to everyone but me. I thought my heart couldn't break any more than when she was working though a black out shaking in my arms. If dogs could shed tears she would have. She was my Golden Wolf. Rest in peace Ginger. <3
A quick sketch of my idea for Ginger. She loved tennis balls so that was my idea to make it into the orb. I used the leash in the pattern of a tennis ball to complete the image and show another aspect of her. The orb is resting on a dog bowl with the shape of her tag and name. She is on the top and looks like a puppy because she would always randomly act like a puppy, even when she was suffering greatly from arthritis.
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This is the general color pattern I plan on using. I also switched the ears after looking at a few pictures of her. The leash is black because the black leash was hers. The black looked very nice with her golden fur, Coinin has the blue, and Princess has the red, goes nicely with her black coat.
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We started out with two equal sized balls of clay and pressed a thumb into the center and pinched from the bottom up the sides till we had two equal sized pinch pots. They have to be set on their rims and sit for a bit to dry.
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Slipped and scored the two pinch pots and put them together and seemed over the edge. To make sure the seam was gone I rolled a thin long piece of clay and blended it around the seam till it was gone. Then I took the scorer and lightly scratched the serfis of the ball to make it look fuzzy and tennis ball like.
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I made a leash to help pull off the tennis ball look. I still slipped and scored every where the two pieces of clay touched to make sure it would hold. Because the ball is hallow, its important to poke small holes through it to let hot air escape from inside druining the firing process. Other wise it explodes.
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Because it is a memorial ORB I made a dog bowl to have the orb rest on so that it wouldn't role off. Especially not a desk after its been fired. That would be terrible. There may need to be some hole in between the bowl and the ball to let air escape if there is a pocket of air between the two.
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This is what it looks like in the bowl. I had to let the bole set over night so that it would be dry enough to support the ball. Unfortunately while slipping and scoring the two together the bole became to wet and I could not carve gingers name tag, so it has to set again,
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So after the bole set a bit I carved Gingers name into the bowl in cursive to make it look nice and fancy. Also i put a bone around her name because her name tag was always on a blue bone. And most importantly I made a lil' Ginger on top laying on the ball. I did her head and body first, then the legs, then ears, and finally tail. The back legs were the hardest because you have to get that canine shape to them. Not just wet noodle them. And then to make the fur texture I took a wider set scorer and marked very few places on her. Went over that with my finger very lightly. Finally I came back with a needler tool to get the long-fur look. This also makes the texture look like there are sevrea layers to her coat.