Forest habitant in the wild! 🙌🏼💫 🌿
Whenever we are traveling or out in the woods, and I find wild clay, I like to make a little ephemeral version of my forest spirits. It’s really satisfying to make them entirely from what the habitat provides in that spot— I dig a bit of earth and shape their body, carve a stick into a tiny point to use as a tool to create the lines of the face, and then adorn them with whatever I find right there. Then I leave them along the trail from which their bodies were formed… like a little protective spirit of their homeland ☺️✨ I like to think someone else walking that same trail might happen to notice them 😌 and it’s really fun because I get to use things that I normally wouldn’t because they will tear or decay too quickly— like these dried leaf wings! What a freedom there is in impermanence 😌
This one sits on a mossy stone with her real life snail and centipede familiars somewhere along the Falls View Trail near the Towaliga River. 🐌🌱🪨
Woodfired bottles from the yard kiln with Chuck ✨🔥
I really like how the two smallest ones came out. The two larger ones are a little dry, so maybe another dunk in another atmosphere sometime in the future…
So much about this firing was a first for me. First time firing from greenware, first time with this clay body… first time really seeing this kiln up close and personal!Jury is still out on how I like the clay. I think I need to see it in more different atmospheres before I have a good feel for it. PLUS all the joins were invisible when the pieces went in and then showed RIGHT back up after firing 🤪 which I’ve never had happen before 🤔 SO now I’m experimenting with all different ways to do the joining. Bit of a rabbit hole about particle orientation I’ve found myself in 😝 but hopefully it yields some satisfying fruit 😌🤞🏼
Big thanks to Chuck for inviting me into the process and helping me learn 😌👏🏼✨🔥 I feel so lucky 🙏🏼
Last slides are of him at unload and with his wild (and sweet 😌) herd of rad long necks from the same firing😁🙌🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Forgot I never posted any of these big pots 🙃
The beginning of gearing up toward what will hopefully be a chance to vend at Green Thumb next April 😌 and in the meantime, a really wonky, fun experiment! 😁🙌🏼🌱🌻 These came out of one of the gas sodas with Denise ☺️
Vendor Spotlight 🌎 Long Leaf Craft Works
Nora’s art has taken many forms over the years, but has always had its roots in the wondrous curiosities of the natural world.
She currently works primarily in ceramics, creating whimsical, nature-inspired pieces— from small sculptural forest spirits adorned with wings, antlers or antennae made from foraged bits of lichen, seed pods or twigs— to functional ware such as coffee mugs sprouting shelf mushrooms, organically-shaped scoops and spoons of all sizes, or little plates featuring illustrations of moths, pine trees, or native wildflowers.
Recently, she has been experimenting more and more with different types of atmospheric firing techniques, primarily gas soda or wood fired work.
When she is not creating art, she works as an outdoor educator and cherishes the times each year when she gets to escape on a new adventure with her partner, Atom, in Moose— their little forest cabin on wheels.
Visit her booth at Uptown Funk Market’s Earth Day Celebration on April 11th (5-10PM) outside of Expectations in St. Pete (615 23rd St. S) !
Spring Equinox constellation mug out of the gas soda with Denise this week ☺️✨ it’s been so much fun learning the ins and outs of how to fire that kiln. I’m so grateful so many people are willing to teach me wonderful things, and that I get to be a student again ☺️🙌🏼👏🏼
Constellations featured are boötes (the herdsman or plow), hydra (the snake), and ursa major (the big dipper). They’re visible from the northwestern hemisphere 😌
The interior glaze is Nuka, an ash glaze, and the exterior is just the way the atmosphere reacted with the raw clay 🔥✨
I’ll be @pistilhouse night market tomorrow from 6-9pm and these little woodfired forest habitant bud vases came out of the groundhog kiln just in time 😌✨🌻
The idea for these was so you could swap out the foliage for their antennae to be whatever you happened to pick in your yard— maybe some little wild flowers, maybe some fern fiddleheads… whatever you feel like 😌 plus they have a convenient little hole in the back for filling and emptying water so you don’t have to fight the surface tension through their antennae holes 😉
This batch looks especially like little stones I think, the way the surface reacted to the atmosphere in the kiln…
Some pics of loading and firing the groundhog this week. And lots of brilliant kiln art and offerings, including some in celebration of our brave leader, @lilydartist 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 I learn so much every time I get to do this. I’m so freakin grateful for the opportunity and the kindness and patience afforded to me and all my many questions as I seek to build a relationship with these amazing elemental beasts 😌🙌🏼🔥❤️🌻
