Halbactorian Alien Canister Number 683j Ceramic Art Pottery Vase by Michael W. Moses

I recently sold my large wall pocket "The Constant Gardener", that I featured in my Sunday, March 31, 2013 post. It was shipped out to day and is going to a collector in Tennessee. 

Here is a new piece of pottery that I have called the "Halbactorian Alien Canister Vase Number 683j".  This piece is one of my vases that has a story to go with it. So many times I have had people say to me what's the story behind this piece and at first I was a bit puzzled as to what they meant.  So now for many of my works of ceramic art pottery, I have created background stories. I find that some people seem a bit perplexed when I tell them the stories now.

The story behind "Halbactorian Alien Canister Vase Number 683j"

Deep within the countless time sealed caves of Danarlov, are caches of treasure that were hidden away by the eldritch Halbactorians.
The Halbactorians were the most ancient of the keepers of the truths of Seldorov. They lived during the 3,477th trieldrod of the 22nd telvef of the empire of Keldoriss. The beings of Halbactor were a race that revolved around the seeking of the "light of the light" and the infinite quest for the original knowledge. The knowledge that they sought was that which had been the first gift to the first Halbactorians. This knowledge was a gift from the maker of truth and had been stored away in a ceramic canister that had been on display in the gild hall of the written truth. It had been displayed there for thousands of years. Then it had been stolen by the Helgarnd Saval and hidden deep in the nether regions of their planet Selcvardav. This artifact is an original representation of the one that was stolen. The Halbactorians created many such pieces as a remembrance of what was lost to them and a reminder of the canister for which they searched. The over all belief is that this type of empty canister still held the original truth even though it had long before been taken from them.

"The Pollinator" Sculpture by Michael W. Moses SOLD

As I sometimes tell people.  I love doing pottery and I love doing bead work and sometimes I just get a bit excited and do both at the same time. This is one of those occasions where I do both pottery and bead work to create the effect that I desire. 

I have been using clay as a creative medium for well over thirty years now and I have been doing bead work for as long as I can remember. By the time I was a teenager I was doing small bead work things on my bell bottom jeans dragonflies and such.  So doing a piece like this that is half pottery and half bead work is not a very unusual thing for me to do.

The hand modeled pottery base  has a solid three dimensional sculpted in the round form, that gives this piece a sense of weight and reality that I really like. The bead work portion has a light weight airiness that gives this work a delightfully alienness that blends to form a truly impressive work of art in my opinion. I call this work  "The Pollinator" and if you look closely you can see why I have chosen this name. The little floater is created out of little tiny mini seed beads and is firmly anchored in place, but looks as if he is just floating or swimming on by after having fulfilled his natural duty in his niche in an alien ecosystem.

 The bead work is all created on wire in the traditional French Beaded Flower technique to make a shimmering delicate presentation that will be both eye catching and sturdy enough to last for a very long time if just a little care is taken.

The hand crafted pottery base is about 6 inches across the bottom at the widest and is approximately 6 inches tall.  The over all height of this piece is 19 inches tall with the bead work in place.

I spent more than a small amount of time planning and setting things in place to get this work completed.  Some of the beads I used have been in my stock of glass beads for well over 35 years and were being saved for something special and I assure you that this was the something special that they were waiting for.  The bead work on this piece trembles with the slightest movement or breeze!  as I look at it setting in my kitchen, it just shimmers and shines as it every so often slightly moves in the warm evening air coming through my windows.

What "The Pollinator" looks like in my kitchen

This piece is now in a private collection in Ocean Springs, MS

Ikons, Icons, Ex Voto, Tamata by Michael W. Moses

I have to tell you that I have not been getting much done in the way of pottery the last few weeks or blog posts.  I have been doing everything but pottery.  I have been working on a prop piece pseudo ikon of Cthulhu that will be used in some still life faux artifact art photographs.

Santa Sofia

I have been putting some of my vintage 1990's art ikons on Etsy to sell, and I have been doing a bit of stuff for South Coast Antiques. Mainly preping stuff for sell, researching, and tagging items. We have picked up a number of great items.  As I was saying I have been doing everything but pottery.  Maybe this week I will be able to get a few pieces painted.

As for my ikons I have been doing them for many years.  I did my first one which was a 1/12 inch scale miniature dollhouse sized one,  when I was 13. It has two doors and a small drawer with a silver handle.  I still have it somewhere.  I used to love doing miniatures.  I created everything that one could imagine. Even a small collection of fired miniature pottery I made back in the early 1980's.

Billy the Kid

Our Darling Girl

I recently came across some images that I took of a few years back of my ikons that I created in the mid 1990's.  I was living in Northern New Mexico at the time in a small town called Regina.  Regina was a magical place that filled my senses with art and creativity.  I loved it there but there was just no way for me to make a real living there so after a number of years there I had to give up and head back East and do an old fashioned job.  Well, I want go into that right now for fear that that might take a bit of the artistic integrity away from this blog.

Key to the Kingdom

My icons are entirely hand made. I very carefully choose the wood. Preferring aged and weathered and antique wood that I could either use as is or that I could manipulate to give the wood a bit more of an aged or appropriate look.  I then hand cut the wood using only hand tools and hand sanded and rubbed the wood to a beautiful finish.

My metal covers were usually made of sheet aluminum and in some cases sterling silver.  I preferred the sterling, but it just got to cost prohibitive over the years and ended up with my working in mainly the aluminum.  Which is good because it does not tarnish like silver. It stays about the same.

Saint Joan

Some of my Icons had nothing more that a small print underneath, some antique tin type photographs, and some I did detailed painting.

Many of them are further embellished with glass beads, real pearls, real stones, faux stones, translucent enamel paints, and of course gold leaf.

My subject matter has been everything from images of nameless unknown Saints to street kids.  Many of these Ikons are not really Icons in the traditional sense. Some might even be considered ex voto or tamata.  For the most part I just consider them art.

Defender of the Faith

The images posted here are images of ones that I sold back in the 1990's.  I did not think about taking photographs of these pieces until I had sold a fairly large number of them.  So I really do not have many images of my ikons.

Our Lady of Sorrow

Cretaceous Carapace Ceramic Art Pottery Bowl by Michael W. Moses, Ocean Springs, Mississippi

This is my Cretaceous Carapace Bowl. This one looks as if it might have been found on the glittering white sands of some warm exotic ancient sea.  Reminiscent of the shell from some ancient or alien sea life this art pottery bowl is approximately 6 inches long and about 4 inches wide and around 3½ inches tall and packs a lot of great eye appeal.  I was very pleased with how vividly the colors came out on this hand sculpted piece of art pottery. This piece is now available at South Coast Antiques & Gallery in Ocean Springs, MS or through my online Etsy shop!

Cretaceous Carapace Ceramic Art Pottery Bowl

Cretaceous Carapace Bowl by Michael W. Moses

Blue Lotus Flower Ceramic Art Pottery Bowl by Michael W. Moses Now on Etsy!

I call this piece of ceramic art pottery the "Blue Lotus Flower Bowl"  I have had it on my counter at South Coast Antiques in Ocean Springs for awhile now holding some of my business cards and featuring some of the last Hibiscus flowers of the season.

When I first put this piece out in the shop I had a woman say to me that one of her roses would look great displayed in the small vase portion of this piece. I jokingly said to her, "Oh, no Mame, This is a blue lotus flower bowl. Only a Blue lotus flower can be displayed in this piece". She looked at me and replied," Now where on Earth is one supposed to find a blue lotus flower at"!  I responded to her, that, that was the whole point of the piece!

Well, my search for a blue lotus flower for it has come to no avail and I have had to settle for less exotic blossoms.  I have some images of this piece below and please take note that the business cards displayed are merely for looks, they are from the long bygone era when everyone had a pager.

Blue Lotus Flower Ceramic Art Pottery Bowl by Michael W. Moses

Blue Lotus Flower Ceramic Art Pottery Bowl

Back View of Blue Lotus Flower Ceramic Art Pottery Bowl

Perfect for Use as a Business Card Holder!

Blue Lotus Flower Ceramic Art Pottery Bowl at South Coast Antiques & Gallery