Out On The Tiles...

White earthenware tile + black terra sigillata + sgraffito in dreamtime

A giant among men...

As you can see, I'm kicking off the new year with something a little different.  Despite what the title might suggest, this piece really isn't that  big... (it's maybe 10 inches tall) but it is quite a bit larger than the effigy pieces I normally make.  I've still got some tweaking to do, but I like the overall look of it, and the elongated form.  I'm sure I will be making more of these; there seems to be quite a bit of room for exploration there.  It was enjoyable to make.  I started it Wednesday evening with the lower torso (the legs and hips) and let that rest overnight to firm up a bit, and then last night I finished it.  Most of it was built from the ground up, using slab coiling.  I could see going even bigger with these... 12 inches tall or more.  Heck, I'm thinking that maybe a 6 foot Moai like that would look pretty cool standing in our front yard!  I'm almost sure Pam would go for it.  Right?
              

North Shore Goodies...

 

I'm pretty sure that this stuff is made by angels, wearing Hula skirts. 

And now, sad to say, it's all gone.  I may have to order more.  The stuff  I'm talking about is called Liliko'i Butter, made by the North Shore Goodies Company in Oahu, Hawaii.  From what I've read about it, the Liliko'i vine is closely related to the purple passion fruit plant that grows here on the mainland.  The Liliko'i Butter is made of Liliko'i fruit, honey, eggs and butter... it's tart and sweet and creamy smooth, and every spoonful reminds me of Hawaii.  I've never tasted anything else quite like it.  It's particularly good on Pam's home made bread.  We first discovered North Shore Goodies when we were vacationing in Hawaii a few years ago.  They had a booth set up at a farmer's market in downtown Honolulu, and we tried samples of several of their products, including their coconut peanutbutter (which is also very good) and brought some home with us.

This Christmas, Pam & I both got the sneaky idea that we would order some goodies from North Shore Goodies as a nice surprise.  It was pretty funny once we realized what we had done. So now we have plenty of coconut peanut butter, but unfortunately my little jar of Liliko'i Butter didn't last very long.  I guess we'll just have to go back to Hawaii and get more.  Sigh.... That sounds like a pretty good idea.  Let's see, right about now the sun is setting over the islands; and it's 73 degrees F with partly cloudy skies in Hilo, Hawaii.  And here in southwest Missouri? Well, it's dark out, and 22 degrees (not too awfully cold) with an expected overnight low of 19 and a clear sky.  Which means I do have to put on my shoes and go out and pull the cars into the garage so we won't have to scrape the windows tomorrow morning.  Hmmmm.  We have such a tough life, don't we.  ;)     

More to come in this new year...

Here are a few of the new pieces I've made recently.  These are all red earthenware, except the feller with the hole in his head. That one is made of white earthenware, with a generous coating of red earthenware terra sigillata, applied when the piece was bone dry.  That one is an experiment... I'm mainly just looking for a different finished surface.  I gave it a slight sheen by rubbing it with the tip of my finger.  I added some terra sig to the surface of the red earthenware bowl in the top photo, also, just to smooth it out a bit.  Can't wait to have a kiln load... I'm getting anxious to fire again!