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Got an email the other day, asking if I still made dragons. She'd bought one 20 years ago at the Eugene Market, had brought it through two decades and many moves, and finally, this last time, it didn't make it.
On the one hand, I'm sorry to hear about things breaking; on the other hand, 20 years is a pretty good life for a Draco frankincensius.
That's an incense dragon; more specifically, a "Smokin' Dragon Incense Burner."
I made the first one in, oh, 1995, as a gift. We'd done our first couple of Holiday Markets on the extreme cheap, renting a 6x8 foot space, the smallest available. So small, in fact, that I was hard-pressed to squeeze in and out of the booth, with only a foot (or less) between display bench and side shelf. Our neighbor, who made oil-soaked incense sticks, had 10x8 corner booth, and generously left a path through the back of his booth so we could get in and out.
So that winter, I decided to make him a thank-you present. I was already making animal banks--pigs, elephants, cats--with wheel-thrown bodies and hand-built details, so I decided to use the same technique to make an incense burner. I decided to make a dragon, for obvious reasons. I started with a basic bottle form, with stick-holder built into the base, then tipped the neck and head forward, added ears, wings, legs and tail. Lastly, I cut it across the mid-point, so he could lift off the top, load in a 4" mini-stick, light and reassemble. It turned out delightful.
I gave it to him for Market New Years (the first week of April), figuring he'd take it home to use, putting it somewhere out of reach of his cats. Instead, he set it up in his booth, smoking vigorously, thinking it would attract customers wanting to buy incense.
You see where this is going. They all wanted to buy the dragon.
I've been making them ever since. There've been a few missteps: though the nose- and mouth-smoking dragons worked well from the start, ones with smoke coming out of the ears just never developed enough draft. I also had to tweak the number and spacing of the air vents around the bottom, and have tried way too many different color combinations over the years.
These days, I'm mostly doing them in various blue, green and turquoise glaze combinations. Like the banks, they're not in as much demand as they used to be, but I still have to make more a couple of times a year.
On the one hand, I'm sorry to hear about things breaking; on the other hand, 20 years is a pretty good life for a Draco frankincensius.
That's an incense dragon; more specifically, a "Smokin' Dragon Incense Burner."
I made the first one in, oh, 1995, as a gift. We'd done our first couple of Holiday Markets on the extreme cheap, renting a 6x8 foot space, the smallest available. So small, in fact, that I was hard-pressed to squeeze in and out of the booth, with only a foot (or less) between display bench and side shelf. Our neighbor, who made oil-soaked incense sticks, had 10x8 corner booth, and generously left a path through the back of his booth so we could get in and out.
So that winter, I decided to make him a thank-you present. I was already making animal banks--pigs, elephants, cats--with wheel-thrown bodies and hand-built details, so I decided to use the same technique to make an incense burner. I decided to make a dragon, for obvious reasons. I started with a basic bottle form, with stick-holder built into the base, then tipped the neck and head forward, added ears, wings, legs and tail. Lastly, I cut it across the mid-point, so he could lift off the top, load in a 4" mini-stick, light and reassemble. It turned out delightful.
I gave it to him for Market New Years (the first week of April), figuring he'd take it home to use, putting it somewhere out of reach of his cats. Instead, he set it up in his booth, smoking vigorously, thinking it would attract customers wanting to buy incense.
You see where this is going. They all wanted to buy the dragon.
I've been making them ever since. There've been a few missteps: though the nose- and mouth-smoking dragons worked well from the start, ones with smoke coming out of the ears just never developed enough draft. I also had to tweak the number and spacing of the air vents around the bottom, and have tried way too many different color combinations over the years.
These days, I'm mostly doing them in various blue, green and turquoise glaze combinations. Like the banks, they're not in as much demand as they used to be, but I still have to make more a couple of times a year.