Blue White Delft Style Georgian Cthulhu Reliquary Trinket Box by Michael W. Moses Ocean Springs, MS

"The Georgian Illustrated Box"

This piece is named "The Georgian Illustrated Box" and I used a commercially made blank bisqueware ceramic box and painted it in a blue and white style that is reminiscent of the tastes for the 18th and 19th century blue and white ceramics. There was a passion for all things mourning, and the romanticized memorial in nature, during the Georgian era, 1714 to 1830. 

I have mixed these design elements with those of the Asian influences on European and American ceramic-wares and then added a few more elements that do not generally belong to this piece if it were original. I then gave it all a brisk shake, mixed it a few times and ended up with the designs mentioned to achieve an eclectic effect.  This spin has made it totally my own original expression of antique blue and white ceramic art work. It is an "homage" to this neo classic style so to speak.

Circa 1820's 30's English Blue and White Transfer Ware

I have tried to create a box that is a stand-alone work of art that appears to be nothing more than a beautiful hand painted piece that might sit in some delicate grandmother's finely appointed front parlor. This innocuous trinket box might sit for a very long time on a dainty étagère, maybe for years without anyone even touching it. You just do not touch things in the formal parlor.

  A Georgian Era Mourning Image

The first thing that you will notice is that the lid has an idealized almost pastoral scene, That has a number of almost Chinese or Japanese elements, but then you will see the stately willow and the funereal urn and then the peculiarly formed pseudo-obelisk discreetly on the side. This vignette is a thinly disguised memento mori similar in mode to nothing less than Georgian era mourning Jewelry

The outside of box is an archaic style wall of individual stones of an unknown age and with a number of cryptic images that can only add to the final tale that this piece has to tell.

But with closer inspection, you might start to observe that many of the stylistic details are not standard to what you would expect to see on a piece such as this. If you look closely, you will see a number of interesting things on the painted into the details on the box. Then, once you lift the lid off, you will see inside a mysterious garden of not quite wholesome looking flowers. These plants surround an oddly laid out geometric detail that contains what appears to be an ancient long forgotten language.

Then, when you turn the lid over, you will see on the inside what makes this piece so different for your everyday drawing room nick-knack that sets in other brightly lit everyday homes. An image of Cthulhu longingly, and eternally hungering for human life force to reinvigorate his very being, staring at you with his ice cold yellow (at least in our spectrum of light) eyes!  This delicately detailed image is almost hidden inside the lid.  Who looks at the inside of the lid of a box?  Not most I would think.

This lavishly painted container is a perfect reliquary for whatever curious artifact that you may have that needs a truly special pyx to house it appropriately.

For a little more oomph, turn the box over and you will see that a happy little winged spider creature with the wings closed tight is painted on the bottom, as a cartouche.

The Unknown Captive Pod Vase by Michael W. Moses Pottery Ocean Springs, MS

 Here I have a new piece that I call "The Unknown Captive Pod Vase".  Here I have once more sculpted a Neo Victorian objet d'art that has a natural organic quality that makes it seem to be some type of quasi animal/plant life that really hungers for something to get just a bit too close to its opening.  It seems to wait for you to maybe, hopefully, reach inside.  But do not do it!  It wants to have you think that it is a delicate little flower like creature, but I assure you that it is not. 

Why else do you think I have it chained to a vintage tea cup?  These little pods are ever so clever and because of this they have to be restrained or goodness knows what might occur!  It may not passively wait for good things to arrive in it's presence, it may actively go out on the prowl looking for the unwary.

These captive bulb vases are a whimsy of mine that are a lot of fun to create.  I will start out with a special cup.  It has to be an orphan cup forever separated from its saucer and sometimes even with a tiny flaw that would keep any savvy collector from having much interest. So to sum it up, each cup is chosen for it's loneliness, but also for specific qualities of aesthetic beauty that for the initiated will be easy to discern. 

After I find a cup I will then place it in my work area and observe it for awhile, maybe a month or so or in some cases years before I see the exact form that will be made for this single cup.  I have to say that as spontaneous as my works may seem to be many of them are intricately thought out for in some cases many years before I sit down to sculpt the actual ceramic art pottery its self.
 

Most of these captive bulb and pod vases feature a message or art work that is hidden by the restraining cup.  These sort of secret messages are there, hidden by the cup enclosure, just for the eyes of very special people.  There may be a great truth, an obscure message, a private joke, or maybe even just a bit of silliness. I will tell you though that as I make them they are evolving, making each one more and more special to my sense of creative value.

Who knows where these little personal treasures may lead?  The only thing that I can factually say is that there will be many more and that each one will be ultimately an original work of my labor intensive love obsession with art pottery.

Michael W. Moses and the 2015 Coastal Treasures Mississippi Gulf Coast Spring Pilgrimage

I was chosen to create a piece of art for the 2015 Coastal Treasures Mississippi Gulf Coast Spring Pilgrimage. This year is the 63rd and it will feature home and garden tours of some of the most beautiful places on the Gulf Coast.

To the left is the finished image that the Mississippi Gulf Coast Council of Garden Clubs, Inc. selected.

If you go to their Spring Pilgrimage website you can see what the finished card looks like with the added writing and find out more information about the 2015 Spring Pilgrimage.

If you are interested in learning a little more about this image Click here.

Oh, and by the way I am not just doing art for the 2015 Spring Pilgrimage, I am also their web designer and  a proud member of the Gulf Hills Garden Club!
 

Blue and White Delft Style Hand Painted Vases by Michael W. Moses, Ocean Springs, MS

A while back I did a piece that involved a hand sculpted bottle that had a blue and white design called "Alien Nafaar unguentarium", that I featured just a few posts back as having been sold.

I started thinking about how some of my earliest ceramic pieces were simple blue and white works that were in a modified Delftware style.

I thought it would be interesting to create a few new pieces in the Delft manner.
I was a bit leery about using a pre made blanks, but it was brought to my attention that it really did not matter who made the canvas that a painting is painted on. It was the painting that was important, not the canvas. This seems to make sense to me so, I went ahead and purchased a few commercially available blank vases and got to work painting them.

Here are the first two of these new pieces. They are undreglaze painted with my original free hand designs. These are not transferware, they are each a one of a kind hand painted work of art.

 

 

I have started a few more pieces that I will post as I have them finished.

Last week I started some new hand sculpted pieces that are now covered with plastic and are slowly drying on the rack. In about a week or so I will take each piece and start all the intricate hand stamping. Then They will have to be put back on the drying rack and left to very slowly dry out completely before being fired in the kiln.

Michael W. Moses Ceramic Art Pottery Now Available at Persnickety in Madison,Mississippi

 Every jewel needs a setting and a collection of jewelry needs a jewel case.  "Persnickety" of Madison is one of those jewel cases.  Set in the small jewel-like city of Madison, Mississippi, the shop named Persnickety takes small things seriously.

That being said, I am happy to say that "Persnickety" is a proud purveyor of Michael W. Moses ceramic art pottery.  I have been searching for just the right place for my pottery and I was very pleased to have "Persnickety" take a hand-picked group of 45 pieces of my pottery.  We went up to Jackson yesterday, 26 June to make the installation and found the owner of "Persnickety", Ben Rogers and his staff to be helpful and knowledgeable.  All went swiftly and the installation was complete in just a couple of hours.

 Here are some photos of the showcase my pottery will reside.  You will note the juxtaposition and contrast is startling.  The placement in an antique style display case which can be seen stage right, just as you enter the door, makes for maximum impact to the eye.  The bright flash of colors and the non-traditional shapes pulls the eye immediately.

 "Persnickety" is no stranger to fine items and their inventory is diverse and well placed.   Discriminating buyers can choose items that have been carefully selected to tickle the fancy of the upscale buyer.  Anybody can have a store, but not all can match the painstaking research and selection available at "Persnickety".

 I’d like to thank The owner Ben Rogers, his Family and fine staff for making this an easy and enjoyable experience.  I hope that people in the Madison and Jackson area will see my pottery there at "Persnickety" and feel like for a brief moment, they are on the Gulf Coast.

SOLD! Ceramic Art Pottery Alien Nafaar Unguentarium by Michael W. Moses, Ocean Springs MS

Yesterday, I had a surprise visit from two people that collect my pottery. We had a good long chat and got caught up on many different things in our lives, being that it had been a couple of years since we had seen each other. Well, to make a long story short one of them bought three piece of my ceramic art pottery to add to her growing collection.

The first piece was a very nice spike covered pod vase. I call this piece "A Sip of Nektar". The spikes are all glazed in a wonderful dark lustrous metallic that jump out from a rich sky blue color and has a a striking organic green interior.  there is a single mottled red tendril groping out from one side, handle like.

 The second piece was a pod vase with a dragon like reptilian creature on the side. A bright orange pod vase with a multitude of individually hand painted light blue dots basks in the bright tropical sunlight while the small hunter sits beside it on a blue and brownish rock quietly waiting for a tastier snack than an orange pod vase to make it's self available for a fast lunch.

The third piece, and I think it was a great choice, was the "Alien Nafaar Unguentarium"

This Alien Nafaar unguentarium is a highly detailed ceramic art pottery lidded jar or bottle depending on how you might look at it. This hand sculpted vessel has an abundance of almost glowing green spikes, an almost aubergine purple-red mini bulb vase and features intricately hand painted alien images and calligraphic inscriptions.

Pieces showing images of the Nafaar are rather uncommon here on Earth.  Most pieces are from the area of the Pleiades star cluster and many will even predate the existence of Earth itself.  This piece is more than likely from Darhlis Denarbith and appears to be from the early Deknerg culture, judging from the inscription.  Being an early Deknerg inscription there is little chance of an accurate translation, being as there is so little information on the earliest of their scripts.  The writing is more than likely a dedication involving the archetypal story of the last of the Nafaar and the end of their world.  An highly romanticized fable dealing with the atrophic end of a vastly ancient master civilization that withered from a planet wide moral and social malaise. A story that even in our own time we all know well.

This translated poem from a late digicript reproduction taken directly from Darhlis Denarbith is well known among the worlds of the Pleiades and far beyond.

On vast Shayvar the suns have set  
Time before before
Such sadness is the lands regret
Eons times adore

The Nafaar Sits at Evening tide.
Dreaming of the day
When all their dreams will come to be
Sorrows swept away

The red sky burns upon the land
Hot pink sands of time
Much hotter than poor souls could stand
Even in their prime

The Nafaar's world has come to end
Their world has been slain
And now I tell you this my friend
Nor to rise again

Now back to reality for a moment.

It is always nice when I sell a piece of my ceramic art pottery, but it always seems even nicer when I sell to one of the people that collect my art works. Many thanks to this collector and also to all the other people that have supported me over the years in my many creative endeavors.

"Yellow Red Service Shell Bowl" Hand Sculpted Ceramic Art Pottery by Michael W. Moses Ocean Springs, MS

Fresh to our world from a sun drenched alien seashore comes the "Yellow Red Service Shell" bowl.

A luxurious study in a matt, satiny, sulphur yellow exterior glaze.

The yellow outside is a perfect foil for the shiny glassy red interior of this piece.




 Each little tiny blue dot is painted one at a time and then painted over with a drop of clear glaze. The yellow is three coats of glaze tediously hand painted around the dots.

The flowing pink and red interior is totally hand painted to give it the effect of a natural flowing surface and then covered in crystal clear glaze.

 

The bottom is hand engraved with my signature and place of manufacture. The writing is filled with colored glaze that is fired on to the piece.

For more information, more images and pricing, please visit me at ETSY.Com

Michael W. Moses New Year Greetings and The Peaceful Gulf Coast Life!

Wishing everyone a very joyous and prosperous New Year! 

2013 was a nice year for me.  I did not have anything earthshaking happen, either good nor bad.  

 It was a year in which my heart and mind were filled with an almost serenity that I have rarely encountered in my life.  I must admit that I did less pottery, less art, and just flat out less of everything in 2013.  And even a bit less weight, which is of course not a bad thing.  My brain is now reeling with all manner of new and exciting things to do in 2014!  

I have a bunch of old pottery to finish and I have tons of new ideas that I just can not wait to start.   Who knows I might even do a few painting....I have not done any painting in a very long time.

Living on the Gulf Coast has made me slow down a little and take things at just a bit more relaxed.  No real hustle or bustle here.  I know that I make this place sound like the land bountiful, but it is for the most part an area where things just seem to move at a different, quieter pace.

I hope that the upcoming year will be full of love, happiness, and prosperity for you and your family and friends.  I hope that 2014 will be as full of peacefulness for you as 2013 was for me.

With hope and love to all,

Michael W. Moses

Art Ceramicist

Ocean Springs,

Mississippi

A Photographic Veterans Day Memorial from Michael W. Moses, Ocean Springs, MS

My last post was about the great time that I had a couple of weeks back at the Fall Muster at Beauvoir, over in Biloxi.  I took a lot of images and did some nice art photography.  One of the images I did was basically a put together from four different images that I took at Beauvoir.  The image shows a soldier kneeling before the body of his fallen comrade. I did two versions of this image one in full color  and it is called "The ultimate Sorrow"

 and one that is Black and white sepia toned and using a hand colored look muted filter to give it an antique look. I call it "The Ultimate Price"

These two images basically say it all for me when it comes to all wars past present and future.  I just can not imagine the unbearable sorrow of seeing your best friend cut down in the prime of their life in front of you and not being able to prevent it. The total sorrow of it overwhelms my mind.  Loosing ones life is sad, yes indeed, but having your best buddy taken out in front of you....now that would be truly the ultimate pain for a soldier.

This veterans day take the time to think about your loved ones that served and some of the things they have had to go through.  Not everyone in the military experiences hurt to the level of having lost there best friend in battle, but many loose so much in so many other ways. So take the time and tell a Veteran or his family that you care. It is not important whether or not one is pro or con towards war and the military. You must always remember that a lot of what we as Americans cherish the most about our country was given to us to us by none other than the most humble of soldiers, because they were willing to go out and pay that ultimate price for love of our country.

Michael W. Moses goes to CoastCon 36 Science Fiction Convention in Biloxi, MS

Here is a non pottery related post for you.

Over this last weekend I went on Saturday to the 36th annual CoastCon Science Fiction convention at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Colosseum in Biloxi, MS

This year the convention saw what seemed to me to be a considerable increase in attendees from the last few years. I would like to thank the many people of CoastCon for putting together a pretty good one for 2013. It makes me anxious for the 2014 one next year!

There were a fairly large number of gamers that showed up and there were many people in costume. I found this years layout for CoastCon a bit better than in previous years at the Colosseum. There was a nice flow to the setup that really worked well.

I picked up a few items in the merchant room and went to the costume contest. This year the prize for best costume was a reproduction Brave Heart Sword, that was donated by South Coast Antiques. The sword was won by a young lady that had a great looking Wonder Woman costume that she made herself. I took a few images during the costume contest and once again was not happy at the Biloxi Colosseum's difficult lighting for photography.  After the costume contest I went around and took a few more images with my digital camera.  If you want to see a few more of the images that I took at CoastCon please go to my photobucket gallery.

I spent the evening setting around talking with some of my friends that I do not often get a chance to spend time with. We had pleasant conversation all Saturday evening, until the convention closed and we were sent out into the night.

I have spent the last two evenings processing the images that I took. I have created a few Art Photo Manipulations using some of the images that I took that I thought deserved a bit of a bump up to the next level so to speak.

I have a passion for doing my ceramic art pottery, but I must admit that I sure do love doing digital photography a whole lot.  I just love taking an image and making a collage of unrelated images that create a new and wonderful image to behold. Many do not consider this type of work to be art, but many people in the 1800's and 1900's did not consider film photography to be real art either.  To me it does not matter one way or the other. I just love digital art and photography and to me creating because one loves to create is more to do with being art than solely creating to just make money.

For a few more of my digital art photo manipulations you can see them at photobucket

Happy New Year From the Michael W. Moses Pottery Blog

Wishing Every One

an
Old Fashioned  

Happy New Year
From the
Michael W. Moses
Pottery Blog

Ocean Springs,

Mississippi

"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