This piece exploded in the kiln, and I decided to practice repair. It was literally a pile of pieces that I reassembled as best I could using epoxy, air drying clay, joint compound, gesso. But once it was reassembled and repaired, it couldn’t go back into the kiln, so for a surface treatment, I had to go with paint. I’m not really into realistic painting of faces on clay sculpture, but I thought I’d give it a go. I felt like I was painting a doll face, which I hated, so added a final treatment with oxide, just to kind of blacken and de-prettify the surface.