Besides ramping up development on the next Doctor Baer book, I’m also ramping up experimentation and creation of new in-world Doctor Baer ceramic objects. This time I’m playing around with developing some kind of charm or amulet of the fire skeletons.
Fire skeletons are creatures you’ll meet in The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue (click the link to see some sample pages and even order the book!). These ghostly dog skeletons blaze with a cheerful fire, but change into something dangerous after a calamity occurs in Doctor Baer’s home.
My first step was to design the stamps for the clay. I created some vector files in Affinity Designer which I exported as SVGs. Once imported into Blender I extruded the shapes into 3D objects and took them into Tinkercad to be turned into stamp models for printing on my Flashforge 4.
I tried a couple of different approaches. Some with a positive stamp, some with a negative stamp, some a combination of both.
After bisque firing, I glazed them with Speedball Mid-Fire Blackened Copper. The samples I saw showed a sparkly, ember-like color, which I thought would be perfect for an amulet for a fire spirit.
Here they are after glaze firing. I was hoping for something a little brighter, though I can’t deny that the shimmer on these is pretty.
I’ll be bringing a batch of these, and my other Doctor Baer talismans, to ALA Annual this summer. If you stop by the Iron Circus Booth (2534D), I’ll be glad to give you one! I’m also signing advance reader copies of The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue, and I’m drawing everyone custom cursed objects. Find out more here.
