Original artwork description:

"It was hard enough watching them go. Watching them come back was even harder. All in pieces, all cut up like that. Ever since she was sixteen, married in the village church and given a household of her own to run, they'd been her life's work. And what work it was; well, that and the conveyor belt.

"Her blue-gloved fingertips were shaped into an eternal pinch. At last, the frantic frizz of her unruly hair had finally given up and lay flat under a blue net cap. 'Cleanliness is next to godliness', she'd smile, never looking up from shaping those pastry shells. 'You can't risk anything getting into the pies,' she'd say to the Saturday girls in a fierce whisper.

From six till midday they never stopped the line, at least, she couldn't remember the last time they had. Not like some of the other factories. No, in the past forty years, from loading the ovens at dawn until the pie shop closed at midnight, Mabel had never stopped."

This portrait is part of my '100 heads' series: 100 small figurative sculptures of curious characters from my imagination.

Materials used:

Clay

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