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To attach the handle, I first marked an area on the mug with some slip. I then slipped and scored both the mug and handle and then attached the two making sure to have some slip come out of the sides of the handle. I added a circle of clay at the bottom of the handle in order to help it hold its shape.

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To attach the nose and mouth to the handle, I first made sure to hollow out the shapes. I then slipped and scored the mouth first and attached it to the mug. And then did the same for the nose making sure to have some slip come out of the places where the two pieces connect.

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First, I rolled out a slab of clay to the desired thickness and cut it into a rectangle. I used a 12 oz. mug as a guide on how tall and long I should make the slab of clay. I then joined the two ended by overlapping the sides a little bit. I used my fingers and a sponge to smooth out the seam on the outside and inside. For the bottom, I traced out a circle of clay that was the same size as the bottom of the mug and connected it using the slip and score method. I then smoothed the edges and seams with a sponge to give it a clean look.

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To create the nose that I would attach to the mug, I first rolled out a thin slab of clay to act as a place to form the nose. I first began adding random pieces of clay to create a brow bone and a rough shape of the nose.

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By looking at my reference photo, I could see that the handle was roughly in the shape of an ear. To do this, I first rolled out a long snake of clay and flattened it to the desired thickness. I then shaped the handle to resemble the shape of an ear.

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Lastly, I etched my name into the background with a pencil.

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Due to the shell being flat, I had to somehow make the shell elevated in order to be more accurate. To do this, I slipped and scored three pieces of clay onto the background which would help give the shell some support. I also added air holes because there would be an air pocket between the background and shell if I didn't add the airways.

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To attach this piece to the background and the piece that was already on the background, I slipped and scored around the edges, on the edges of the head piece, and both the top part of back fins and tail. I also slip and scored the areas of the background where those pieces would connect.

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To attach the tail, I used the slip and score method. I also made sure to thin out the tail in order for it to be easier to connect to the background.

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Again, I used the slip and score method to attach the back fins to the shell. I also decided to shave parts off of the top part of the back fins because it was too thick to attach to the background.

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What the finished product looked like.

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In order to make the process of connecting pieces together easier, I first began with putting the head onto the background. Along with the head, I made pieces of clay that resembles the skin that attaches to the neck, shell, and shoulders.

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To attach the shoulders, I used the slip and score method to attach the front fins to the shoulders. After trying a couple of times, I realized that the shoulder part of the front fins was not necessary, so I decided to cut off those pieces. This made it easier to attach the fins to the shoulders that were already attached to the head.

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To add details that resemble to markings of a sea turtle, I used a crochet placemat (courtesy of Mr. Stout) and rolled it gently over the clay. This produced various shapes that were very similar to the ones on a sea turtle's fins. I then used my tools to refine the edges.

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For the back fins, I used the same crochet placemat and did the same process that I did for the front fins.

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Head details (done after attached to background)

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Head details (done after attached to background)

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For the head details, I used a sharp tool to make various shapes that had sharp corners. I made sure to have them relatively similar to the markings on a real sea turtle's head. I also added balls of clay for the eyeballs and made sure to smooth out the area around them. Furthermore, I poked holes into the hollowed head in order to resemble nostrils.

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To make the shell details, I used a sharp tool to etch various lines in the clay. To help make it look as accurate as possible, I used various photos to help give me an idea of where to put the lines. To make the tail, I took a ball of clay and shaped it into a thick triangle shape. For the tail's details, I used the crochet placemat.

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To make the front fins I made a ball of clay and lengthened it by rolling it between my hands while moving it up and down. This made a long oval shape. I then flattened the piece to my desired thickness. By looking at a turtle's fins, I could tell that the side closest to the body was relatively thinner than the outer side. To show this I pinched and pulled the clay to make it thinner while making sure to have the outer side thicker in order to imitate the look of where a bone would be. I repeated this process for the second fin.

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After looking at the head and shell, I could tell that the front fins were too large. To fix this, I shaved off the edges of the fins while making sure to have the inner part thinner than the outer. I also added clay to resemble shoulders, which I would later use to attach the fins to the body.

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I then smoothed out the shape and began adding more dimensions around the nostrils, tip, and bridge of the nose until I was satisfied with the shape.

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To make the shell, I started out with a big ball of clay. I then flattened the clay to my desired thickness. I started to shape the clay into an oval while also making one of the sides end in a dull point. To make it less block-like, I lengthened and thinned out the edges by pulling the clay.

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To make the back fins I repeated the same process as the front fins of making a flattened oval shape, but I made sure to make the ovals wider. I noticed that on the back fins, it was obvious where the ends of the bones are due to the indentations and edges. To show this, I cut off pieces of clay and smoothed out the corners in order for there to be smooth edges. I also noticed that the upper part of the fin was significantly thicker than the ends. I tried to show this by pinching and pulling the ends making sure to have the top parts be thicker. I repeated this process for the second fin.

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To make the head of the sea turtle I first grabbed a ball of clay and shaped it into an oval. I noticed that on a sea turtle's face, the area on the sides of the beak where the cheeks would be was relatively shallow. To show this I used my thumbs to push the clay back in order to shallow it out. This, in turn, allowed for the beak to be more emphasized. I then added pieces of clay in the shape of long ovals around where the eyes would be in order to add some dimension.  I also put two place markers for nostrils in order to know where I should put them in the future.

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The medical field

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Plants/nature

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Animals

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The beach

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Shoe-gaze music

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After setting up the parts I had made into where they are going to be when I connect them, I noticed that the fins were way too long and wide. To fix this I cut off part of the top while making sure to have the top be the thickest part. To narrow them, I went around the fin and scraped off the clay. Due to this. the edges were very block-like, so I went around and smoothed out the edges and corners.

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For the mouth, I again rolled out a thin slab of clay. I then etched lines into the clay to give me markers on where the different parts of the lips.

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I then started to add pieces of clay in the shape of the top lip. I made sure to use a sponge to smooth it out.

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I then repeated this process for the bottom lip until I was satisfied with the shape of the mouth.