Make clay figures for the garden yourself

What you need:

• volume
• wire
• knife
• Rolling pin

Pottery clay figures using the ball technique

Beginners to pottery should best start with lying or sitting clay figures on a ball base, which are easier to manufacture and unbreakable than figures standing upright.

1. For ducks, Cats, Snails and other animal garden dwellers each form two bowls for the body, which you join together to form a ball.
2. You can either shape the bowls freehand from a clay plate rolled out with a rolling pin or work from a template. For example, cover a tennis ball or a styrofoam ball of the desired size with fine nylon tights and wrap the clay around it. Let it dry slightly, cut exactly in the middle along the ball and put the two parts back together.
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3. At the connection points you have to carefully spread the seam with plenty of water-enriched clay until it is seamlessly closed. Also roll a thin bead of clay in the appropriate length, place it on the seam and smooth the transitions.
4. Use the same principle to shape the head from a smaller ball that you cut off on one side. The hole now becomes the starting point: Place a thin bead of clay in a circle on the large ball, put the balls together and smooth the transition from the outside thoroughly.


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5. You can also form elongated clay figures from individual bowls if you make oval ones instead of round half-bowls.
6. So that the clay figurines for the garden do not burst when burning, you need a large air hole, which is best worked in on the underside in the middle. Of course, you can also let your animal exhale air through its mouth or beak.

Individual sculptures for the garden

Advanced ceramic artists can also try their hand at human figures, which are best designed using the sausage technique or massively shaped and hollowed out.

1. With the sausage technique, roll a piece of clay into a long bead and place it in a circle. Then put the next bead on it and smooth out the transitions. Arrange the clay sausages so that the seams are always slightly offset. By shortening the bulges you can achieve a narrowing shape. If the figure is to be wider towards the top, put a longer clay ring slightly protruding outwards.
2. But you can also work a massive figure from a larger piece of clay, which you can then use with the Hollow out a knife or a wire loop so that the outer walls are about one to two centimeters thick keep. A sitting or lying figure, which can be opened and hollowed out from a large area, is best suited for this.
3. Your finished clay figures for the garden should be glazed particularly thoroughly after firing in order to withstand rain and weather influences.
4. After the glaze, they are fired again before they can find their place in the green.