I have a few pieces of green ware patiently waiting for me to get my kiln finished so I can start firing them and treating their surfaces with vitreous engobes. I had an assignment from one of my teachers this past spring to work in a series and he wanted me to work in clay since that was my strength, which is funny to me because I was in an interpretive drawing class at the time. After many hours of doodling in my sketchbook I started to notice a pattern to my madness and settled into doing Kiln Gods. In my line of work no matter what preparations are made, there is still a lot left up to chance. We prepare our work to the best of our ability, and try to control the firing process as much as possible, but in the end there are some things out of our control, in a way it is analogous to life and there comes a time in life when we have to say that we have done all that we can do and place the rest into the hands of a higher power. For me that is what the Kiln Gods represent. They have been used by potters the world round to watch over their firings and help them get through the process with the best possible results as then can. The ones that I sculpted are not modeled after any specific cultures existing Kiln Gods, but are symbolic to me or my interpretation of what I think may be important to the culture that influenced them. Part of me hesitates to share this work in progress, but I want to share something with you that I have been working on recently:
