She stroked the clay with her fingers, pausing to give one area of wet clay a push with her thumbs. She will allow it to dry to leather-hardness, then cut the work into pieces, allowing the design to determine where she makes the cuts. She paints the piece, often spending hours creating the exact colors she envisions. Sometimes the right colors for a piece become apparent to Ehrlich after some trial and error. I used only greens for these trees at first.
Trees are green in summer.
But the effect was flat. When I added some reds and yellows to the greens, the piece woke up and came alive. Madame extends her arm in a toast, her fingers delicately curled around the stem of the glass. Ehrlich used contrasting techniques, capturing with a few strokes the soft suggestion of the woman's clothing while finely sculpting the precise detail of the face and fingers. I wouldn't dream of taking now.