Moose, 4″ x 4″ x 0.4″, multiglazed, x-ray style, cone 6 oxidation.
$35
A collagraph plate is used to print the raised black lines which when waxed act as a separator to the glazes.
Moose
Tag: tile
Maple Leaf
Six-inch Maple leaf and seed pod impression on Cook Inlet glacier clay, white slip, brown spray and brush, mason stains, clear glaze, cone 6 oxidation.
Alaska doesn’t currently have maple trees or other hardwood trees. It did before the most resent glacial ice age, but the glaciers took out all of the state’s trees except the willow. Many trees have returned since the receding of the ice caps, though not the hardwoods, yet. Maples will grow if you plant them, just not propagate. This impression is from a leaf down the block where I live in Anchorage Alaska.
$70
Quaking Aspen & Feather Impression
Four-inch quaking aspen and feather impression, white slip, brown spray and brush, mason stains, clear glaze, cone 6 oxidation, Cook Inlet glacier clay.
Two Owls
6″ x 6″ x 3/8″ on Cook Inlet clay, multiglazed, cone 6 oxidation
$75
Owls will stare for the longest time and then just wink. I liked the owl in “Walk Well My Brother” that led the pilot to the young Inuit girl who had walked off into the Tundra to die, from untreated tuberculosis.
Three Wolves
Three Wolves
6″ x 6″ x 3/8″, Cook Inlet glacier clay, multiglaze, cone 6 oxidation.
$75
Sedna
Sedna is the Inuit Goddess of the Sea
8″ x 8″ x 3/8″, Cook Inlet Glacier clay, multiglazed, cone 6 oxidation.
$130.
A small sub planet was named after Sedna recently. A google search will turn up lots of stories related to Sedna. She is the mother of the whales, seals, and fish. If you see sea weed out at sea, they say it is Sedna’s hair. A young lady bought one of the Sedna tiles and told me how she drown as a little girl and some paddling guy saw this interesting looking sea weed and when he grabbed it, he pulled her up and was surprised, but he did revive her. Cool.
Leaf Impressions
Four separate leaf impressions, each 4″ x 4″ x 3/8″ on Cook Inlet glacier clay with crystalline glazes. Cone 6 oxidation. I pick the leaves from the local dog park in Anchorage where I walk our American bull dog. The leaves are set on a square matte board and a firm, but still pliable, slab of clay is laid on top. Both are run through my old fashion etching press. It’s amazing how much detail the clay retains of the leaf, even the veins show up.
$30 per 4″ tile.
Fox & Hare
6″ x 6″ x 3/8″ multiglazed, Cook Inlet glacial clay, cone six oxidation. Caribbean sea green background. This is one village’s tale of why night follows day. The fox is the moon and the hare is the sun and they are in this continuous chase through the sky, so that is why night follows day. Done in the x-ray style common on the coast of western and northern Alaska.
$75
Polarbear & Seal
Polar bear & Seal, 6″ x 6″ x 3/8″, multiglazed, cone 6 oxidation.
The Polarbear is waiting for the seal at one of its breathing holes. The Inupiat (Eskimo) in my mother’s village of Point Hope, Alaska pretty much survived on seals and other sea mammals during the winters, much like the polar bear. The x-ray style used in the coastal areas sometimes shows the insides of the animals, like the ribs and stomach.
$75
Kayak & Orca
Killer whales, or Orca, like to follow long line fishing boats and snack on the black cod and halibut that are brought up. An acquaintance was in a new boat the orca didn’t recognize, so while she was sitting on deck baiting, one of the orca snuck up, lifted out of the water, checked out stuff on the deck and looked my friend up and down. She said the intelligence in his eye was other worldly.
Sperm whales have started to hang around fishermen too and take some of the catch. Smart animals. An underwater video camera recorded a sperm whale gentle twanging the fishing line with its teeth and causing a fish to fall off its hook which it gobbled up.
6″ x 6″ x 3/8″ multiglaze, Cook Inlet glacial clay, cone 6 oxidation. An inked collagraph plate (a mat board plate with a cut out design glued to it) is placed on an etching press and a slab of clay is placed on top. Both are run through the rollers. The tile is trimmed to size and touched up and placed in dry wall and then on wire racks.
$75
I make and sell tiles in Anchorage, Alaska.