Glaze-Time

It has been a long time . . . .

By Tooth and By Thorn

Mementos from Scotland.

King: Clay from 2011

King Holmberg: Sculpture mix; transparent brown and denim glazes, layered.

Missing the play of clay in hand . . . .

Fresh from the Kiln: Chesspieces

Clay: soldate;
glazing: oribe.

The Gang Is On The Way

Soldate clay, still drying.

A Cold Wind Blowing -- At The Ford

A Cold Wind Blowing

"Seyton!"

I'm thinking of a particular speech from Shakespeare's Macbeth: 
V.III. 23-34.  (Seyton is Macbeth's retainer and body-servant.)

Long ago, I wrote what I felt was a successful piece explicating Lord Byron's use of this same passage in his own masterpiece Don Juan.  I should hunt up those old words and see if there's any validity still there.  In the interim, I'll reread that piece from the Scottish play.

Charming

 Sculpture mix  charms and ornaments in progress.  The deer pattern is from a design by the wonderful Celtic artist Jen Delyth.  I have an ornament of hers that I am using to make patterns in clay for my own use and enjoyment.  Check out her art!

Ragnar, Ethelred, and Robin

Playing with clay.

Therapy: Clay / Hands / Soul

I allowed myself an hour or so in the studio today.

Three Kings

Bull-Headed

Brecca: stoneware; blue glazing.

Hrothgar's Pawn: sculpture mix; deep green glazing.

Talismans of stubbornness? Head-pieces for hardiness and holding ground?

Rex

King's Head: sculpture mix; shiny black and shino glazing.

(Marred from the black glaze running further than expected.)

Caption Contest?

Knight at the Ford

Guthlac: sculpture mix; green and blue glazing.

Looking at the figure leads me into looking at the water. I like catching the flow in such moments. I feel I learn something.

Hwaet!

Hrothgar's Pawn

Here's another piece from the chess set I never finished. A pawn, I guess.

Another minotaur of sorts. Actually, I think of the piece as a Viking faun, if I may mix my traditions. No horned helmet--an inaccuracy, that, anyway--but a horned head. The fierceness and the shagginess call out "Viking" to my mind.

Bullish and goatish both, though not Mediterranean at all: no Cretan sleekness, no Classical spareness here. The severity is rough and textured. Rough weather; rough water. Cold, kelpy seas; the swift shifting of the seasons; dark forests of oak and pine; harsh frost and snow; wolves and bears and boars (oh my). Bear-shirted berserkers, man-beasts, beast-men. What's his lineage, truly?

If Viking goats seem too far-fetched, recall that Thor the Thunder-god's chariot is pulled by two goats. (At least, until trickster Loki lames one of them.) And the sound of those chariot wheels rumbling across Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge of Asgard, makes the thunder we hear down here on Midgard (or Middle-Earth). I like Thor, defender of gods and men against the frost-giants and all things unhallowed. Thor, whose very name echoes the Norse word for "giant" (thurs), always strikes me as the street-cop of that northern pagan pantheon.

My piece: Beowulf's henchman, perhaps, or Hrothgar's pawn. I haven't named him yet. Perhaps the name of one of Thor's goats would suit?

Hrothgar's Pawn: sculpture mix; deep green glaze.