Slipware Straw Bear Money Box!

I was going back over my little sketchbooks the other day, making notes in my 'workshop' pad of all the possible pots i could make. I came back to English folk customs and realised the Straw Bear was perfect for the colours of slipware.. and the traditional slipware treatments. I've always loved the 'rustic' tobacco jars and had been looking again recently at one in the Burton Museum's Reg Lloyd collection. I'd been planning to make a pot with a pig sitting on a tree stump, as there's a lovely pig sitting next to a tobacco jar in the Hastings Museum, so I thought I'd unite the two into one piece. Anyway, suddenly it clicked and i thought of the Whittlesea Straw Bear sitting on a stump, taking a rest. I could slip the bear and leave the stump un-slipped, but with the ends of the chopped branches blobbed with a dab of slip. perfect! I made him over a couple of nights last week. I made a mess when i rushed the slip, i should have approached it calmer and more prepared! It needs some tidying up, but it'll be ok. He's also a functioning money box, with the slot in his crown and a corkable hole in the back of the stump. Form and Function! I'm planning on making the Hastings Jack In The Green next. His crown will give me a test. I'll make that separate as i might need to make a few!! I'm still making the pig on the stump though. I haven't really sculpted any little animal forms, so I'm quite looking forward to making the pig with a little hat. I'll post a pre-fire pic of the straw bear when I've tidied him and added some lettering around the base.

That tobacco jar at the Burton.

pig and stump, hastings Museum... and lovely bird whistle thing.

The Whittlesea Straw Bear

Hastings 'Jack in the Green'

Sloppily slipped, needs some tidying and a bit of sgraffito.