∵∴∵Unwashed Elm Wood Ash Glazed Incense Holders∵∴∵

Wheel Thrown red or black stoneware incense burners, glazed with a custom ash glaze made up of unwashed elm wood ashes. Fired up to 1270°C in an oxidation electric kiln.

The iconographic face in the middle of the dishes are based on archaeological art from the Mesolithic Lepenski Vir culture from central Europe c. 9500BCE. This cultural group may have had firmly established animistic belief systems that revolved around their existence as hunter-gatherers, and how they made sense of the nuances of the natural world that surrounded them. They had a close affinity to conceptualising life and death, and appear to have had well-established mortuary practices that incorporated the anthropomorphisation of fish-human rock art / sculptures in a way that tied into their dependency on migratory fish populations in the Danube River, (Srejovic 1972).

The artwork is a symbol of grief, but I feel acts as a playful reminder of human emotions being ever persistent across time, and a humbling example that we have always dealt with grief in peculiar ways.

Naturally you don’t need to be grieving to use this incense burner, but either way, simply slot the wooden ends of your incense sticks into the eyes and mouth of the central face. Charcoal disks for resin burning and incense cones can also be used, and I guess the design accommodates for candles too.

(If you are curious about the specifics of this information and would like to learn more or be provided sources please feel free to contact me).