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March Pottery – Year of the Dragon pt. 2
Shirley
April 12, 2024
9:26 pm
A colourful collection of pottery featuring little dragon totems, a small barn swallow totem, larger animal totems in the back, and further in the back are mugs/vessels stacked on top of each other.

omg it’s been a minute since I’ve written for the blog!
I meant to make this post when the shop update went live, but honestly thinking about writing all of the alt text for every single photo felt so daunting—on top of everything else I needed to finish (my taxes).
So for folks who rely on my blog for shop updates: I'm sorry about that!

A colourful collection of pottery featuring little dragon totems, a small barn swallow totem, larger animal totems in the back, and further in the back are mugs/vessels stacked on top of each other.

Technically, these pieces were made for a March shop update but it ended up getting released to the general public in April.

A ceramic sculpture of a crow. The bird has been done in black underglaze, and it’s wings/back feathers have been painted to mimic a rainbow with underglaze, and pops of gold glaze as well. There are sgraffito markings carved around it’s body including a California Poppy on it’s back. Left 3/4 side view.
A ceramic sculpture of a crow. The bird has been done in black underglaze, and it’s wings/back feathers have been painted to mimic a rainbow with underglaze, and pops of gold glaze as well. There are sgraffito markings carved around it’s body including a California Poppy on it’s back. Left side view.

A ceramic sculpture of a crow. The bird has been done in black underglaze, and it’s wings/back feathers have been painted to mimic a rainbow with underglaze, and pops of gold glaze as well. There are sgraffito markings carved around it’s body including a California Poppy on it’s back. Right side view.
A ceramic sculpture of a crow. The bird has been done in black underglaze, and it’s wings/back feathers have been painted to mimic a rainbow with underglaze, and pops of gold glaze as well. There are sgraffito markings carved around it’s body including a California Poppy on it’s back. Right 3/4 from the back view.

For March, I continued the Year of the Dragon theme and went hog wild making a bunch of little Dragon Totems!

A group of 9 small black sgraffito dragon totems done with touches of gold arranged to face towards the right of the picture frame. They look as though they're shuffling in that direction.

A group of 9 small black sgraffito dragon totems done with touches of gold arranged diagonally.
A group of 3 small turquoise sgraffito dragon totems done with touches of gold arranged diagonally.

A group of 3 small turquoise sgraffito dragon totems done with touches of gold arranged in a row.

A group of 5 small green sgraffito dragon totems done with touches of gold arranged in a row.

A group of 5 small green sgraffito dragon totems done with touches of gold arranged diagonally.
A group of 3 small orange sgraffito dragon totems done with touches of gold arranged diagonally.

A group of 3 small orange sgraffito dragon totems done with touches of gold arranged in a row.
A group of 3 small red sgraffito dragon totems done with touches of gold arranged in a row.

A group of 3 small red sgraffito dragon totems done with touches of gold arranged diagonally.

For this batch of totems, as you can see from all of the dragons I played around with gold glaze again and I’m really happy with how everything turned out. I’m still working on getting the clear glaze to play nicely with my other underglazes, but I’ll get there.

A small cream-white dragon totem decorated with details done with underglaze such as California Poppies and other markings.
A small cream-white dragon totem decorated with details done with underglaze such as California Poppies and other markings.

A small cream-white dragon totem decorated with details done with underglaze such as California Poppies and other markings.
A small cream-white dragon totem decorated with details done with underglaze such as California Poppies and other markings.

I also made a variety of totems including some backups just in case my Plan A piece for Every Day Original ended up not working out (again). But fortunately, everything ended up turning out beautifully (sans the accident with the Rainbow Crow)!

Side view of the Beer (bear/deer hybrid) Totem. It’s on all four paws and has it’s head raised up. California Poppies, a crescent moon, and other lines and details have been carved into it’s body. Left side view
Side view of the Beer (bear/deer hybrid) Totem. It’s on all four paws and has it’s head raised up. California Poppies, a crescent moon, and other lines and details have been carved into it’s body. Right side view.

A small Barn Swallow totem done with turquoise, black, orange, and red underglazes. There are sgraffito details all over it’s body along with a small addition of gold glaze on it’s wings. Left side view.
A small Barn Swallow totem done with turquoise, black, orange, and red underglazes. There are sgraffito details all over it’s body along with a small addition of gold glaze on it’s wings. Right side view.

I wanted to make more mugs and vessels but I wasn’t able to make that happen. A goal of mine for the future is to have two of each design available, so that’s something I’d like to accomplish this year!

Ceramic black sgraffito mug featuring my Running Bison motif. This mug also features a floral border above and below the Bison motif.
Ceramic black sgraffito mug featuring my Running Bison motif. This mug also features a floral border above and below the Bison motif. This shows the back that features a California Poppy motif.

Ceramic black sgraffito mug featuring my Year of the Dragon motif.
Ceramic black sgraffito cylindrical vessel featuring my Year of the Dragon motif.

Ceramic black sgraffito mug featuring my Running Wolf motif. This mug also features a floral border above and below the wolf motif. This shows the back that features a California Poppy motif.

Ceramic black and orange underglaze sgraffito vases featuring my Dance of the Fresno Nightcrawler motif and California Poppies.
Ceramic black and orange underglaze sgraffito vases featuring my Dance of the Fresno Nightcrawler motif and California Poppies.
Ceramic black and orange underglaze sgraffito vases featuring my Dance of the Fresno Nightcrawler motif and California Poppies.

A small, turquoise sgraffito trinket dish with my Devil Dog motif. In this version, the skull dog’s eyes and canine teeth are painted red.

I also made these pouches for the li'l dragon totems! I really love this idea, and so I'm going to be making more totem stamps for all of my different li'l animal totems so they can all be packaged with a pouch.

A photo showing a collection of fabric jewelry pouches that feature a dragon totem design that has been stamped onto each bag. There are several colours that coordinate with each dragon totem—black, orange, green, red, and turquoise.

I went way more in depth on the process behind these pieces over on my Patreon!

Category : Art Pottery Shop Update
Tags : Art Pottery The Shop