I start out with a very rough hand cast, then I separate it Into individual fingers, bending them into desired expressions and carving details like skin creases, nail beds and finger prints with the help a scalpel, needle and a small paint brush.
While raw, Porcelain is soft, goopy and brittle material, so shaping, carving and polishing almost always breaks off fingers. I often have to reassemble the hands by tacking them together with raw slip, and smoothing out the patches into a flawless surface. When fired at high temperature, the clay becomes ceramic and all the parts fuse back together once more.
This is my first hand with long nails. I’ve always made exclusively short and natural nails for my dolls, as that is what I find most appealing. This is my first experiment with applying tiny porcelain nail extensions, and I’m curious to see if I dig the results.... and always, always pray to the kiln gods for a successful firing!
Because there’s always an element of chaos in the ceramic process of vitrification - it will either make the clay - or it will break it. As in, it will literally explode, and poof, there goes 80 hours of work.
What do you think about the nails?