The First of Three Nativities

This is the first of several (three, I hope) nativities.  The angel has already been bisque fired...that's why she is a different color than Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus... who are still drying.  All three of them have flowers in their hair...or Joseph's staff...the baby Jesus is a rattle....I know, you shouldn't shake babies but it's a kind of fun surprise!
I think I'll glaze the angel with crackle white...maybe the baby too and then use the new oil slick glaze on Mary and Joseph and maybe the angels wings...or I might do something else...I never really plan ahead too much.

New Glazes and Icon Boxes

The new glazes I tried out on Thursday turned out amazing!  This is the Cherokee Tara with one of them...I really like the way the colors turned out so vivid yet the glaze isn't too shiny (the picture makes her look more so than she really is...I'm SO not a photographer).



The other new glaze is a white crackle...I tried it on an angel ( her wings aren't finished yet)....and, again, the picture makes her look much more shiny than she is.













I also raku fired all the little icon boxes I made a while back...I'll post a picture of one and the rest will be on facebook.


My daughter did the beadwork...she's so much better at it than I am!

from the shed: Glaze Day

from the shed: Glaze Day

Glaze Day

I spent much of the day glazing stuff.  I'm trying out a new glaze...I really hope it turns out  'cause it was very nice to work with.
Here's what things look like when they are glazed...I'm going to raku next Thursday and then we'll see!  From right to left this is Tara, an angel (her wings are in the kiln) and Hillin....Tara is the one with the new glaze...hopefully it will look like oil...all dark and rainbowy


I painted a few sayings on the walls of the shed and loaded the kiln.....things still need to dry a bit but I'm hoping I can bisque next week!  Oh...and I bought new raku gloves...no more burnt fingers!

Some Random Stuff

 I've been thinking of making the saints, etc into a more useful type thing and so....I think I'm going to make some saint containers for human ashes and probably pet ashes also.

Yesterday I made a large pot with a lid...something I've been wanting to try to hand build....the outside looks pretty good but the inside is questionable...anyway it was what got me thinking about ash containers...the paper towel is just to keep the lid from sticking and/or shrinking and not fitting anymore.


While I was pondering life and death I painted the door of the circuit breaker box in the shed...if you look closely there are little faces in the tree (seems I've always drawn on walls when frustrated)....

 and I made an angel (the circle thing is her wings...trust me it will be cool) and a few more hamsa hands...I guess I've been busy...mostly just hot.

First of the Tara Goddess Series

I've been fascinated with the stories of the goddess Tara lately...she's in myths from many cultures..she's either born from the earth or sea, falls from the sky or springs from the compassionate tears of a male deity...regardless of how she arrives she is always given the chance to be reborn as a male..... but she chooses to remain a female as long as there is suffering on the earth (she'll be around awhile).  I've decided to make 12 different renditions of her and then take pictures and make them into a calendar.....so....I started with the Cheyenne Tara.  She fell from the sky as a star and the places her body touched the earth made food for the Cheyenne people grow.  Those who ate the food from her body became more enlightened (remind you of anyone?).  I googled "food of the Cheyene" and, other than fish and buffalo, the only thing that kept coming up was corn...so... her braids end in corn...her hands have holes (?) for me to add star charms after she is raku fired...I think the next Tara I make will be the Polynesian one...she was born from the sea....

I also made some more small icon boxes.  In an effort to make something that is less expensive than a saint or goddess I keep experimenting with the icon boxes. I made two today that are different than the others, less time consuming, hopefully easier to glaze and still appealing...a goddess and a nativity.  The nativity will have a star charm hanging from the top and the goddess will have a place for three charms...so, she's sort of generic until I add the charms.  I really prefer knowing who someone is as I make them but I think this is a good marketing option....

Web Page!

At last!  I've got the first page of my website up.  I pressed the publish button at 2:22 pm today...that's got to be a good sign.
Just a couple more days of computer work and then I can get back to my dirt....there has been much missing!

check it out   www.firebrushedpottery.com