I Am Back With a New Piece of Ceramic Art Pottery!

I know that it has been quite awhile since I have made a post on my pottery blog.  I must make apologies to you for this.  I have taken a small vacation from my pottery and the internet and have focused on on a number of things in the real world.  I have made it sound a bit dire maybe, but it has been far from being so. I have been working in my garden, entertaining company, working on home related projects, selling antiques, buying antiques, and generally having a busy but enjoyable time of it all!  Now I will be back to doing pottery here in Ocean Springs.  I have many new piece of ceramic art pottery in the processes of being made as I write this. About a dozen or so new works to be painted and fired!  I have gained a new and hopefully lasting focus on my sculptural pottery and I am more than ready to start back to the joy that for me is doing ceramic art pottery.

 Here is one of my latest works fresh from the kiln! I call this one "The Thorny Sea Flower Vase".  This is one of those works that just vibrates with life and color.  The tendrils all have delightfully sharp little points that will actually poke you if one picks it up by the tendrils.  This was a piece that really just came together so perfectly.  This one was a total pleasure to create.

 One last thing about this vase.  It was sold the same day I got it home from being fired!  I love to make these pieces and I must say that I also love to sell them. 

Selling your work is the benchmark to how much your work is accepted and appreciated.  For us artists it is such a feeling of satisfaction to have a piece sell.  I create art, "Ars gratia artis"(Art for art's sake)and I will create if it sells or if it does not sell, because that is what I have done all my life. So it is such an extra joy and blessing that I have been able to sell so much of my works for so many years now.

 I would also like to take this moment in my life to thank everyone that has purchased my art over the years and all the varied people that have helped me,assisted me, and supported me, in my many artistic endeavors over the years. You all know who you are I should think.

More posts and more pottery to come soon!

"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

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