Handmade Christmas

A handmade Christmas should start around July, not November. Here are some of my nativities. I had 6 people on my list that I wanted to make the standing nativities for. I made 2 extra big ones and 3 smaller ones and several nativity tiles- but when you work with clay you have to expect surprises. Here is a sample of my work. I was so rushed that I forgot to take pictures before i gave them all away. Hopefully i won't be too excited to give the rest away and can get Sarah over to do a photo session of them.
I plan on making these until each family member has one- and when I get them again I will begin making the additional figure- or make them dish sets if I have a wheel- what ever they want.
Nativity Tile. (Sorry, blurry) Terra cotta clay with celedon glaze (first glaze fire) and then black wash (second glaze fire) .

Earthenware nativity with iron saturate wash. Love it
nate thought it would be good to have a dark backdrop- so they held up jake's jeans.

Here is my experience this year. Much is to be learned about this stuff.

• One nativities broke too much to be recovered while being driven to the kiln at my Mother's house. The Joseph is still in tact and can be used in another nativity.
• Next time I need to transport them while still leather hard and not brittle- or better yet..GET MY OWN HOUSE WITH KILN SPACE!!!!
  
• One whole nativity has been glazed 2 times and is still ugly. It will be glazed again in the next firring.
• Did not make a baby Jesus for one of my smaller nativities (not pictured)
• Broke the 2 other babies for the 2 other small nativities while loading the kiln
• One small nativity lost a mustache- i think i need to toss that Joseph- but not until i make a replacement.
  
• put an ugly celedon glaze on 2 of the nativities. One is a larger one that no one took- both will be re glazed.
• Need to make a custom nativity including elements of other nativities minus the ugly celedon glaze for one family member (happily- i want them to love it and i like making them)
• need to make another Mary for a nativity that crashed to the tile floor after being opened on Christmas Day.
  
• need to make one more nativity for my sister in law that gave me an i-pod- after realizing how much they cost i told her i'd pay her back with pottery- she can pick exactly what she wants.
  
• Made some ugly nativity tiles. I won't make them again, just the pretty ones shown

Things I have learned:

• Start earlier much much earlier.

I plan to sell these on my etsy shop and at Bohemia in Tuscon. But if they are to be priced the same as my other pieces the larger nativities will be around $100. So I think I'll make a few of those and then a lot of Tiles. I think they can be around $15 or so and then I'll make some smaller nativities that are not so labor intensive and sell them for less than $50. (umm...there is a family/friend discount- very generous discount for those who have been asking about buying nativities).