Glazing of goddess trees

I've joined a great glazing class taught by Annie Singletary. The second session will be this Sat. In the meantime, I've started glazing some of my goddess trees. Here's the Tufted Titmouse Tree goddess with the glaze unfired. There are 5 little critters hugged up against her, including Mrs. Titmouse and her nest with 2 eggs.


I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my mixture of glazes will be ok when she's fired, to cone 06, or low firing. The glaze is commercial glazes, mixed on a pallet actually. You never know how much black and white glazes will actually change the tones.

The dried glazes look pretty cool though, giving the grey matt coloration. I hope to develop a good grey that's not high gloss.
The clay is either porcelain (P-5) or low fire earthenware. Since I'm not sure, we're staying with low firing of the glaze.

This is Tree Goddess One, the first one I made of various symbols of the goddess on a tree.
Her face isn't particularly "pretty" as I feel that goddesses are just like people, and don't look like someone from Holywood. I'm really not interested in duplicating what Disney has done.
Her heart is on her back side, or maybe she's just twisted in the wind.
Roots and branches, holes and rough textures, all point to the inspiration of nature.

Wood has it's own patina, and shapes when growing. I tried to replicate this process, though I was using clay and glazes.

With spring coming to Black Mountain, I went out and enjoyed taking pictures of various blooms yesterday.


This is a low bush, just bursting with bee-attracting blossoms.


A white piece, which is incised and cut so that it can become a lantern with a votive candle inside, she is wearing a crown, so must be a queen. Here she was waiting to be fired.

Waiting to be bisque fired, a stoneware sculpture sits on the bottom shelf in the kiln room.

This triple tree goddess represents myself and my two friends who've known each other for about 35 years. Oooh, that seems so long, and makes me feel slightly old. Hey, I'm a crone and proud of it!


She's been bisqued and is waiting on the glaze shelf. She has stain and 2 glazes on her, so I'm not doing any more glazing till I see how she comes out. Maybe next week...

I'm a community member of the Black Mountain Center for the Arts' clay studio. Which means I'm entitled to 1/4 of a kiln fired a week...based on available space. So for 3 weeks I've waited. It's a good thing, to slow me down a bit. I've had 4 other tree-goddesses bisque fired, but am not going to choose glaze or stain until I see how this one comes out. I've got 2 more creations that are dry or drying. I do hope that the glazed one is chosen first.

This tree-goddess inspiration has taken me on new paths...I never know whether she will have a face, or just the suggestion of one. It's meant being diligent to the needs of the clay, being at the studio almost daily for the month of March. I took 3 months off and hibernated from December through the winter...and am so grateful to have springtime returning.

Now I've re-retired from working part time, and am excited about gardening and creating.

The class I'm in every week "Rise Up and Call Her Name" has been giving me more inspirations about goddesses.

Contact me at goddessinclay@yahoo.com.