Easter Blessings

Rome's St. Peter's Episcopal Church recently asked me to do two custom pieces for them- a bowl for holy water and a sand receptacle.  

They had found a gorgeous antique stand for the water basin and needed a piece to match in size and color.  We also decided it would be neat to add a cross inside the bowl to match the cross on the wall in the chapel.

Stand in need of a bowl

Table in need of a new sand receptacle to fit the ledge

I rarely make things quite this precise as far as measurements go.  So this was a fun challenge to measure, use math to accommodate the 12.5% shrinkage rate, and make something especially for a specific resting spot.

We used earth tones to match the interior of the church and to slightly contrast with the brown wooden furniture.  Most of my pieces are usually bright, shiny and cheery so it was a bit of a diversion from the norm, which is good for me.

The finished bowl

The bowl started as a 14 inch bowl and shrank down to about 12 1/4.  It does not have a foot as it sets inside the stand.

For the cross inlay, I was up for a challenge as well. I took the photo of the one in the church at and angle, so I couldn't simply scale it down and trace it into the clay.  So, I just took my time and drew it free hand on a piece of paper I cut down to the size I wanted the cross to be.  After I was happy with my drawing, I laid it on the clay and took a dull pencil and just retraced the cross, pressing the form into the clay.  I used some carving tools to define it when I removed the paper and then trimmed it out around the drawing, giving it some additional width and stature.  For glazing, I considered using stain, but I thought introducing a new element to the decoration would take away from the simplicity and natural feel.  So I just glazed the interior, cross and all, and then wiped the glaze off the surface of the cross, which leaves glaze in the crevices, defining the drawing.

The sand receptacle

The sand receptacle was basically a math project.  It is purely a product of the rule measure twice, cut once.  And lots of smoothing.  The inside wall is there to create a pocket for the matches and the larger portion is for the sand.  So, all the table needs on the ledge is pottery.  No extra mess.

Finished Pieces in their places...

These also have special inscriptions on the bottom that the church provided for me.  Overall, it was a challenging, fun, scary project that I'm so relieved/excited turned out well.  They wanted it in time for Easter weekend, which only gave me a couple weeks so I prayed almost every night the final days of the creation process that the clay would not crack, the glaze would not drip, and that I would not drop them at any point along the way.  

Thank you Lord, for this Holy Week, dying for our sins, and taking care of my pots.

Love, 

Lisa