1. Cactus Wren

2. Not in my neighborhood (I'm in the city), but I see them just outside the city limits in the desert while hiking.

A Mandaic curse bowl in the Royal Ontario Museum. It has a spiraling Mandaic text that leads to an encircled x at the center.

This Super Bowl Sunday, I’d like to introduce you all to the magical curse bowls used in Upper Mesopotamia and Syria in late antiquity. Written in Mandaic (as here) or Syriac Aramaic, they trap demons who trespass on a household by sucking them in with spiraling spells to the center of the bowl.

Thank you!!

Mars Rover Jewelry coming this Wednesday Dec 10th, 12pm PT ✨

A collaboration with my good friend @sciencesocks.bsky.social who turned the pendants into jewelry!

To join our mailing list for this project:
sciencesocks.co/pages/amy-ra...

I appreciate the compliment. I loooove playing with clay.

Thank you

Thank you so much!

Left edge of a glazed, footed strainer ceramic bowl. There are small holes in the front, a larger hole for the thumb in the back. A double band of fish in opposite orientation go around the bowl.

#Fishmas day 7: Sternoptychidae berry bowl.
It works way better than I would have thought.
#Ceramics, #pottery, #SciArt

This deep sea fish bowl is so cool.

A porcelain mug with a sculpted skeleton (skull, hand and arm) embedded in a mossy, rocky landscape. Held by my hand. Primarily off white clay color with turquoise and green glazes in spots.

A porcelain mug with a sculpted skeleton (skull, hand and arm) embedded in a mossy, rocky landscape. I'm holding it by the handle, which is sculpted to resemble precariously stacked rocks. Primarily off white clay color with turquoise and green glazes in spots.

Another view without the handle.

My last pottery restock of the year is live. This porcelain skeleton embedded in a mossy rock outcrop was such a fun mug to sculpt.
#ceramics #pottery #womensart #skeleton #ceramicmug #porcelain #art #handmademug #coffeemug #ceramicart #ceramicsofbluesky #pottersofbluesky #potteryofbluesky

They're plagioclase feldspar crystals. They are embedded into the clay during the greenware stage.

Thank you

Here's a porcelain Anthropocene mug embedded with stones that I recently made for a long time customer. One of these days I'm going to keep one for myself. #ceramicart #porcelain #pottery #pottersofbluesky #womensart #skull #skeleton #geology #mug #handmade #clay #ceramics

Thank you!!💗 I make a version with colors that are more true to the desert, but this color combo makes me happy

My landscapes always look like they're at risk of collapsing. Want a little precariousness with your favorite beverage?

There's a band of igneous stones embedded and fired into the porcelain.

#ceramicart #ceramics #pottery #pottersofbluesky #ceramicsofbluesky #porcelain #geological #cacti #desert

A porcelain test tiles showing a clear glaze made from the minerals and rock just behind the tile.

Three porcelain test tiles in the foreground. Left to right: The left tile is a gritty primitive attempt at making a rock glaze using local materials. The middle tile is another attempt using local materials that created a tan, cracking glaze. The right tile is finally looking like a clear glaze! Yay!

Meet my Sky Islands clear glaze! The recipe consists of 90% locally scavenged calcium carb, quartz, and feldspar (1st photo). 2nd photo shows earlier attempts at making a clear desert mineral/rock glaze.

#geology #rocks #minerals #ceramics #ceramicglaze #glazenerd #pottersofbluesky #artprocess

Stunning: A pair of emerging stars in Lynds 483 have sculpted this radiant, hourglass-shaped cloud of gas and dust.

In a few million years, each star could grow to match the Sun’s mass, leaving behind only a thin disk where planets might eventually take shape

(Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI)

Credit: @pablocarlosbudassi.bsky.social

Over here sculpting rocks with rocks in the rocks.

#rocks #minerals #geology #ceramics #ceramic #workinprogress #potteryofbluesky #pottersofbluesky #ceramicstudio #desert #handmadecup #cactus #landscape

Bowl featuring star resembling CW Leonis and surrounding galaxies. (Side).

Bowl featuring star resembling CW Leonis and surrounding galaxies.

You look a little down, have a bowl of cosmos
#sciart

For the fifth day of #Invertefest a minoan mashup cup, kamares ware outside, marine (and invertebrate) style inside.
#pottery, #ceramics

Incredible photos.

A photo of the face of a dragonfly with intense blue eyes from the front. The large blue eyes mottled with black spots surround the roundly rectangular pale blue central face area. There is a small black triangle at the top of the face between the eyes where there are three small oceli, small primitive eyes.

Today I want to share with you all one of my favorite #MacroPhotos I have ever taken. On July 18th, 2014 I had a magical encounter with this #dragonfly, the Great Blue Skimmer, #Libellula vibrans and I was able to capture this focus stack.

#invertefest
#insects
#Photography
#MacroPhotography

My mom used to make those kinds of mugs, with a surprise at the bottom, but with something cuter like a lil frog. A roach mug definitely appeals to a person's ridiculous, mischievous inner kid. Harmless fun, until the mug gets thrown against the wall.

I have yet to hear from any customers about their piece meeting a violent end. Not yet...

That's a real concern! I kept one of my roach bowls (it had a glaze flaw) and I use it to scoop packing peanuts into packages. Every now and then, I get that automatic recoil when I first open the bag of peanuts and catch a glance of the ceramic roach 😂 It's such an instinctual response.

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks!

The only scarab I have made is a dung beetle, with ball of dung of course. I have added gold luster, but have not tried any colorful metallics. That would look beautiful though!

Thank you!!