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.

"Come to me my Love" Pod Vase by Michael W. Moses of Ocean Springs, MS

Here is one of my newest pieces of hand sculpted ceramic art pottery, which I call the "Come to me my Love" alien pod vase.

 This piece looks as if it might have been captured just above high tide on a delightful tropical beach on an alien planet far from our everyday lives!

Then again it has that organic quality that makes it seem to be some type of quasi animal-plant life that hungers for small creatures to come forth and give themselves up to it's desires.

Then again this type of life form 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.

What ever the case, this neo Victorian objet d'art will be the master of whatever domain it will be placed, be it your bright conservatory or a cool shady curio cabinet in your front parlor. This piece will surely be the dominate species in any setting!

Neo Victorian Hand Sculpted Belle Epoque Captive Bulb Vase by Michael W. Moses

 Today I am featuring a brand new work of ceramic art pottery that I call, the "Belle Epoque Captive Bulb Vase"  This is a piece that I can describe as being Neo Victorian.  This pieces is completely modern in manufacture and coloring, but has all of the exuberant qualities that also make it a high Victorian design. This type of work is so reminiscent of the lavish over the top creations that were being produced during the period that the French refer to as the Belle Epoque Era (1871-1914).

 

 This one of a kind hand modeled work of ceramic art pottery comprises 4 distinct pieces that I have assembled together into one bold artistic statement. I started out with a really great circa 1910 hand etched glass sugar bowl. I then made a small root system shaped bowl that fits into the bottom of the sugar bowl, Then hand sculpted a bulb vase to fit into the sugar bowl, over top of the small root shaped bowl to create a small covered box like area. I then perched a lively little alien creature upon the side of the bulb vase. Once it had been fired, I meticulously painted all the details, glazed, then refired.  I added a vintage silver tone costume jewelry quality chain and two vintage red aurora borealis rhinestones for the happy little creatures eyes.

The Belle Epoque Captive Bulb Vase is basically a hand sculpted bulb vase that one can use for flowers and that has a small place where one can hide a ring, a few gold coins, or a small precious note. That is attached to a beautiful antique sugar bowl with a chain.

Just to let you know, if you do not know, The chain is added to keep the bulb vase with its sugar bowl home.  These bulb vases can get a little on the wild side sometimes and one will need to keep it chained so that it does not escape into the wild.

An image of what it looked like just after I had pained it and just before it was glazed.




 This work is available

A Ceramic Art Pottery Card Holder by Michael W. Moses Incorporating an Antique Doulton's Silicon Ware Piece

Michael W. Moses Art Pottery Card Holder

This post is featuring a piece of ceramic art pottery that I started working on quite a while back.  I was making a point of sales card holder for South Coast Antiques & Gallery.  I had it fired and I put it to the side when I found out that we were going to have to move out of the shop so that a restaurant and bar, could replace us.  Well, I got looking at it and thinking about it and I figured that I would just go ahead and finish it any way. So, there.  It was just as simple as that.

I went ahead and painted it, glazed it, fired it, and then attached the accessory piece.

The attached piece is a great antique piece of art pottery that was made by Doulton of England. This piece was originally a small jug with a handle, but sadly the handle was broken off somewhere along the way.  When I purchased this piece I was so dissapointed that it was broken.  In the past I have usually avoided broken items, but this little piece seemed to nice not to give it a second chance.

I was so suprised to see that it was marked Doulton Lambeth 1883.  Usually when there are numbers on the bottom of a vase or other cermaic piece they usuaally are nothing more than mold marks or a pattern number.  In this case the 1883 is actually the date when this piece was made. This piece is maked Silicon. I had not heard of Silicon ware before I saw this piece.  I have found that it was a major type of art pottery during the late Victorian era. Silicon ware was made by the company that we know as Royal Doulton today.  When this piece was made it was only known as Doulton.

Michael W. Moses Doulton Silicon Ware Vase Attachment

I also have to say that from almost the moment that I laid eyes upon this tiny art pottery vase, it is only 3½ inches from top to bottom, I knew that I would incorporate it into this card holder.  It always gives me such great satisfaction when I have an image of a piece of ceramic art pottery fully realized in my mind and then see it sitting in front of me compleatly finished.

After 129 years and being broken and then being sold to me, this tiny work of art is hopefully going to be able to survive for maybe another hundred years or so with a bit of luck.

As a bit of an aside. While I was taking the pictures of my card holder I was interrupted by one of my two kittens, His name is Spot. He was not going to leave until I took a few glamour shots of him. Here is one of them for your kitty viewing pleasure.

"Spot", M W Moses' Little Kitty