Friday, September 16, 2011

Puzzle Jugs, my style

I have finally finished and photographed the puzzle jugs I did while at Wildacres this summer. 
This bizarre thing was an inspiration from a Doug Fitch and Hannah McAndrew Slipware Workshop I did in Shelby. I found a picture of this one in an English traditional pottery book they brought.  The one in the book was a tower with windows in it, but being the woodsy gal that I am, I decided to make it trees instead.   Pour drink in the top and it goes through the handle to the bottom and out the snake mouth. Pretty wild in action. Had I to do it again the snake would have started at the top of the bottom chamber.  When I poured the glaze in it, the snake projectile vomited it out it's mouth!  Works much better with thinner liquids, but really more of a conversation piece anyway.
Inside the trees is a stump with the squirrel that eats all my pears... eating a pear.

This one is more like the puzzle jug they brought.  Theirs was of course more traditional with a Shelby 2011 written on it.   They usually have a teasing poem about getting the ale out once it is in.  Mine has a door that says "Enter men of mirth."  To drink you must suck through one of the spouts while putting your fingers on all the openings, (except the big holes in the sides, silly!).  It is a puzzle.

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