Shotgun Boogie Man

(For sale on Ebay Click here)
"Shotgun Boogie Man"

Using something destructive in a creative way.
Hand-thrown stoneware. Gently sculpted with a 12ga. shotgun.

Process Photos 
(Not the jug that is shown above. For demonstrating the process only)

Boogie Man sculpted and covered with a red clay slip. The jug must still be quite damp throughout. Dry clay simply disintegrates when shot. (Think Skeet Clay Pigeons).

After a single shot from about 40 feet with #4 shot.

The trick here is not to aim directly at the jug. A full head-on shot would probably blow him away. You need to aim about 16" from the jug. One side sustains the most damage. The intact side adds structural strength for firing.

The Ballistics of Shooting Clay:

Forget what you know about how bullets act on animals or people when dealing with clay.

Clay at this stage is more like a liquid than a solid body. When the shot hits the clay it created a back-splash that looks more like an exit wound.(Think about dropping a rock into a mud puddle). The exit side has the smaller and less jagged hole. Since there is nothing inside a hollow pot to distort the shot and it has slowed since entry, the exit wound is small. Thicker parts like cheeks noses and horns are distorted most and size of the entry is much greater than on thin parts.

Blasted Cactus (sold years ago) click pic to enlarge.