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THIXOTROPIC BLOB CREATURE -1972
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After several years of slip casting, production, (1968-1972), a large amount of scrap clay with unusual properties had accumulated in Bailey's studio. When they are soaked down again in water, the casting scraps become thixotropic, or partially deflocculated . This thixotropic clay stretches and flows like taffy, and its unusual properties suggested to Bailey, a way to "create life out of mud". He dumped a bucket of soft, thixotropic clay onto a large piece of cloth. Then, by moving his hands around under the cloth, he manipulated the clay so that it stretched and flowed into organic shapes and textures resembling wrinkly skin, viscera and internal organs. Then he added blood vessels and bones, and the "Blob Creature" was born, untouched by human hands, like a being from an alien world. He makes a series of "Laboratory Specimens" which exploit the properties of thixotropic clay for the next 15 years; each one depicting a mad-scientist scene from a comic book "chamber of horrors".

"As a youth, I thought that I might become a doctor of some kind, and now I found that I could actually practice medicine with mud."

Clayton Bailey - 1972

BLOB CREATURE- 1972

Low-fire ceramic, china paint, hair, wood crate, felt lining

36" X 18" X 7"