Yoga Goddess & new glazes

This red clay lady has some eggshell glaze lightly applied, leaving her mainly her natural color, of course. Appropriately.

Close up showing some of the glaze.

Close up of her earthy feet, which have something like roots and indeed, she is related to a tree in many ways.

Other foot and root detail.

Yoga Goddess was fired in an electric kiln to cone 6. She stands about 20 inches high.

When a picture was taken in a different environment, the red clay looks different in color. This yoga goddess belongs in Deb Vingle's collecion of art. Deb is my yoga teacher.

This bowl is Little Loafers clay with a sponged on glaze combo. The bowl was thrown, then split on the 4 sides, and then reattached where the splits were overlapped. Top diameter is about 10 inches.

I like this glaze especially. A thrown base, with carved foot area, then slab applied in little torn patches on the upper area.

The sponged on glaze combination is my favorite glaze at this time. This vase stands about 13 inches high.

Detail of the foot area.

Inside the patched pieces of slab have been smoothed together, creating a seamless interior.

Two new goddesses

Two new goddesses!
Whoopee for me. I'm almost satisfied with them. Well, I'm never completely satisfied, but let's say I can let these go and be pleased.

I'm calling this our Dervish goddess...thanks to Linda's reminding me of the hats and whirling shapes the Dervishes dance...though of course they aren't even women in reality. But since this one is pink, she speaks for herself.
She is lowfired white earthenware, and of course has the tree roots I so dearly love to put on my goddesses whenever I can.
Here's a close up of my Titmouse goddess...holding her nest as well as the tiny bird.
At the back of her skirt is the little bunny.
While to her side sits the white squirrel...like the ones in Brevard, NC.
She is also white earthenware, fired to cone 06 with Mayco Storke n Coat glazes.

Glaze test results

Yesterday's class was looking at 5 sets of glaze tests. And talking about them to learn what we were looking at. I learned a lot, not just about glazes too. Marty, Cathy, Wendy, Erin, and I listened to Annie Singletary's experiences with glazes.

But on a personal note, my glaze tests were fired in 2 kilns...at different temperatures. So that was the first basic difference that was noted. The glaze which was supposed to be a satin matt looked great as a matt at cone 06, as fired in the studio. And the cone 04 kiln had a different cooling and heating cycle, using some kind of Enviro-Vent, whatever that is. But that set of glaze tiles (same exact batch of glaze) came out with high sheen. The recipe was designed for 04, I'm pretty sure, by Val Cushing.

And did I get a grey? Nope. Lots of turquoise and green and blues. So Annie said she'd send me a Mason Stain number for grey...which is a source of premixed colors that are to be added to a glaze. But since I don't mix my own, I probably won't be able to use it...unless I add it to some of the glazes the studio has. That might work...if they'll let me. Maybe I'll test that sometime.

The grey was intended for use on my tree sculptures. So I will eventually have something that replicates tree bark. Isn't it funny that earth chemicals don't make grey glaze? Especially since dirt is usually that color. Not to mention every tree out there. Where do they get the chemicals that combine into that nice soft grey? Somehow not from any of the ones available to pottery studio glazes.

But wait, the paints and manufactured glazes have black, white, and shades of grey in between. So it isn't that there isn't a source of "greyness" pigments. It's just that it isn't available in the pallette of chemicals that are mixed for studio glazes. They can't do red either. Glass often has nice reds, but the only red that pottery can have, besides the rust colors from iron, is the copper red that's achieved in a reduction kiln. Reduction means the oxygen is reduced in the firing which allows copper to turn a bright ruby red...rather than the shades of green it usually has.

I thought of glass because it also goes into a kiln and is melted. But it's not the same as the glass of a glaze on a pot. I don't know why though.

I found black copper carbonate at 2% added to a base glaze forms a nice pale turquoise, so I may try that, if I ever want it. I also learned (thanks to Erin) that plumbers cement is a great glue for clay. I've been stuck with super glue all these years (pardon the pun)...but she says she can use it for lots of different places, and then paint on top of it so it doesn't show. That's great.

I'm happy that there are manufactured glazes that mostly will be the true colors they are designed for. I'm also happy there are potters like Annie who develop new chemical formulas for glazes that aren't manufactured, and test them and then use them on their wares. Annie's pottery is sensuous and lyrical...always a joy to see and handle. Bu we go in entirely different directions. I hope sometimes my sculptures are also sensuous and lyrical. Perhaps.

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.

sculptor not potter

I've clarified my own definition of what I do, of what I love to do. I love sculpting, not potting. I'm sure I'm not at all influenced by what happened yesterday.

On Fri I threw on the wheel for the first time in 3 months. Sat. I finished the bowl, which had some slab handwork around the top. Set it aside before I could trim it at leather-hard stage. That took till yesterday. Must have had a lot of humidity these last few days. Oh, my wrists were sore on Sat. from just throwing about 6 pounds. Ugh.

The trimming was going very well, but I kind of had a huge foot, and then I had a huge hole in the bottom of the bowl. Not the first time. So I threw a pancake and patched it into the hole, and went home. Will smooth it out when I go into studio in an hour probably, and perhaps save all that effort for one bowl. I'm trying to make a singing bowl, which has such thin walls it will make a pretty tone. But with the patch, that's highly unlikely.

I've got none of the goddess-trees finished, but waiting in the kiln room still. There are 5 at least so far...all differnet batches of left over clays. Today I think I'll do some more low fire red tree goddess making. It feels like a good day to start another one. I have a white clay tree that needs glazing, but needs some brush work that I'm putting off till I have another one too.

I did get some reglazing finished on some old mugs. They didn't turn beautiful that way. Oh well. They're functional. T he new glaze was to add some softness to the satin glaze that kind of was underfired looking. That happened, but there's also a kind of dirty cup look to them now, like the coffee hasn't been washed off. They will just be my home mugs probably now. They already have been for a long time!

Tonight is a Rise Up and Call Her Name class at the UU church here in Black Mountain. This is just the 3rd of 13, and the whole series promises to be really great. There are three wonderful facilitators, and this time I'm just a participant.

Oh, I forgot to mention that a week ago I turned in my resignation as the church administrator. Whow, it feels really good...I'm free in another 3 weeks. I'm telling them I won't be available to help after that. Mainly I'm so glad to not be pushed and shoved to be someone I'm not. I don't change my personality at this age. And in spite of lots of good people asking, I'm not willing to talk about it with a committee in order to help. Issues that were already resolved should somehow have a rubber stamp that says, finished, completed, so forget it already. Or perhaps the other parties just didn't want the issues resolved, and told people as if they were still current. The other people and other people and so on...petty politics in my view. At any rate, for me they are over. Ahhh.

I am a sculptor. I make goddesses. That's what I want to spend the rest of my life doing.

Barbara Rogers

Trees trees trees, and goddesses

I've been working again at the BMCA clay studio since March 1...but haven't felt like writing. Sorry about that. The image that I'm persuing is goddess in trees. It's turning into a series actually.
Since none of them are completed yet, there aren't any pictures, yet. Soon though.
Decisions to be made first. To glaze or not to glaze.
The Black Mountain Center for the Arts clay studio now has many new glazes, which can be combined a bunch and really look fabulous together.
But I've had the experience that glazes just have a mind of their own, and seldom look just like those great little test tiles. So it's a leap of faith, and I'm not sure my sculptures would be ok with zooming off into the fire of chance and coming out any way that glass might happen on them.
Trees have been talking to me. I started looking around whenever I was outdoors, which was pretty seldom with the cold winter around here...looking for trees that seemed to have a feminine twist. Didn't identify any, actually. So I thought, why is there a "green man" who's face is sometimes seen in trees? After all, a green woman would be just as possible.
So with that inspiration, I started putting faces, hearts, yonis (is the plural of that word yonis, or yonies?) and breasts...onto sculptural trees. Roots, I love the curves of roots. And branches, both those that are reaching up or out, and those which have now disappeared with the wonderful whorls left on the main trunk. Trees show their histories.
In honor of my friend who recently lost her breasts, I made a tree with inspirational substitutes in the location of breasts. A nest with some eggs sits in place of a right breast, and a mother bird on a branch for the left one. She's a Tufted Tit Mouse, of course. The folks in the studio got a kick out of that.
SO that's what's happening in my creative life. What's happening in yours?