ArtFire

This bowl is hand built using a mold for the initial form and then manipulating the clay as it settled into shape by pulling and stretching the clay - kind of a balance between telling the clay what I wanted it to do and letting it tell me what it wanted to become. After I popped it off the mold I added a second ruffle in the inside to give the whole thing more texture.

One of the things I love about clay is the different colors it comes in and the different colors if changes as it goes through the various stages of firing. This bowl is built of three blends of clay -Sandstone Buff (which starts out yellow and fires to a dark toast), Cinnamon (which starts out red/terra cotta and fires out to anywhere from terra cotta to brown depending on its mood), and Black Mountain (which starts out kind of muddy charcoal and fires out to a rich roasted coal). The end result was a little muddier than I had hoped for, Cinnamon is a persnickety clay! So I opted to glaze the bowl more fully than I had originally intended.

The whole bowl is coated in Yellow Salt glaze giving it that warm tan color all over. Yellow Salt is a matte glaze which I think works well with the earthy nature of three types of clay here. I added a dash of Copper Red at the bottom of the bowl - you can see it in the splashes of red and some of the negative space where the red broke the yellow - glaze is funny that way, and in the cracks between the two ruffle edges.

This bowl measure 15" in diameter (though it is not a true circle, it's a bit ovoid), 5.5" high from the base to the top most ruffle and 4" deep at the center of the inside well. There is no footer on the piece, but it is level and sits nicely on its own.

This piece has been fired to cone ten and will work as an indoor or outdoor altar piece and if food safe. You can put it through the dishwasher if you need to, though it will eat up most of your space given its size.

This an ideal piece to use as an offering or blot bowl in ritual or to hold cakes. Whatever you choose to do with it, know that it was created with love and a dash of magic to make any moment special.

For additional photos and more information about the artists please visit www.sacred-seeds.net

Clay, Glaze