it's fricken bat pots!!
goth pottery, I'm batty about it.
When people ask me what sort of pottery I make,
I usually say “um… stuff with bats on it??”
Like… I make plaster molds out of Halloween decorations, and press-mold mugs, little dishes, that sorta stuff. So it’s all functional tableware, but super spoopy, with bats, skulls, snakes, all the good stuff!!
Then they usually look sort of overwhelmed and confused. Too much info for a simple question.
So I try to err on the side of replying, “goth pottery, with bats on it!!”
I like to think I come from a long lineage of goth bat potters. So, here’s a flit through some I really REALLY like. *bat emoji*
I freaking love Freiwald. Contemporary NJ Ceramicist working in the Arts and Crafts style making these beyond gorgeous mythical haunted-object feeling vases….
AND HE MAKES HARPY VESSELS TOO!!!!!
On the subject of harpies… there’s an image of a trinket dish that seems to be accredited to the 1920s that I always see making the rounds on pinterest.
I love her. She’s giving more round-bodied succubus than harpy to me though.
Ephraim Pottery is another contemporary studio making bat pots in a more Art Nouveau style…. Is this not the most me-coded vase ever????
Wowzers. Oh and they make urns too. Put me in a bat urn when I die.
Ok, Rookwood Pottery is an American pottery company in the Art Pottery movement, most commercially popular around 1890-1929… making… such gorgeous lil guys!
I die.
I die!!!!
I sadly don’t have a source for the maker / era of this bat teacup mug. My guess from the detail and glaze style is that it’s Majolica, or Majolica-inspired? I know too much about really niche kinds of pottery.
A lot of these studios like Freiwald or Ephraim are reviving these styles like Majolica and American Art Pottery. I’m here for it.
Goth pottery revival!
Ok for the this last one… because I could show you pictures of bat pottery forever… we will switch gears slightly with a not-pottery.
Repousse metal work is fascinating to me…. next time I’m looking for a new hobby…. repousse has my name on it…
xo
Rose