Saturday, April 28, 2007

Pipestone Pendant


Ok I know its been three months. I've been busy but not on art. You know how it goes, there are taxes and websites and houses that need attention. Well finally back to art. Here is the latest pendant I've created. It is hand carved out of Minnesota pipestone(catlinite)and inlaid with PMC (precious metal clay). The underlying circle design is borrowed from the mound builders. Designs similar to this were found on carved shell gorgets (pendants) and on large stone circles called sun circles found in mound builder ruins. On one side there is a pipe superimposed over the snake design combining the tradition of the pipe with the ancient snake design. On the other side (below) you can see that the tail of the snake is over the protrusion of the pipestem from the first side. Let me know how you like this latest departure from porcelain.

1 comment:

  1. Lovely! How did you set the metal clay - did you fire it in the stone? What temperature? Never heard about this stone before, it would be great if it survived the firing temps needed for metal clay!

    Petra
    www.silverclay.co.uk

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