Bog Born: Ceramics & Crafts

At great long last, a little webshop restock is finally live! 🐸👐 Thanks for the enquiries about shop updates and I'm always humbled that people are so keen on my little creations.

Peruse this small but mighty assemblage of modern and historical pottery as well as some new vinyl stickers! (UK shipping but if abroad, contact me to discuss shipping).
Shop link in bio.

Being Picts in a woods full of chanterelles and our very own loch. There was coracles, carnyx, many many crafts and incredible people! What a great time at the Ancient Caledonia Camp! So many amazing folks were involved but to name a few, I was in the good company of .leather
and many others 🙌

I popped in to help everyone in crafting early medieval oil lamps to light up the camp 🔥
We mixed clay from the River Tay with sand and goose poo (who knew this was the key to great pottery! 🪿🪿😂🪿🪿)
And we then spent a lovely afternoon hanging out by the fire as the pots warmed and then fired to ceramic. Glad to say that all the pots fired in one piece 😁

A much needed chance to just chill out in a beautiful spot and geek out with fellow archaeology and craft nerds.
What a joy to be part of it and already looking forward to more!

Off to be a Pict again this coming weekend at Fort George with History Matters Ltd

An iron smelt to remember. Tom from and I teamed up this summer (alongside a brilliant group of helpers) to smelt iron and make an iron age sword from it. An ambitious and exciting week! And the smelt itself has been beautifully filmed by Rob Timbrell so if anyone is curious, have a nosey here:

👀 https://youtu.be/VrSfaGew1K4?si=90b2gbPV4xR_Z-nk 👀

Flickering firelight in a feasting hall would really glint and glitter on the black clay and bright shining foil decorations of Tatinger Ware.
A 8th - 9th century product of the Rhineland potteries, it seems to have been shipped out to many of the far flung corners of the viking world, and in archaeology, adorns everything from pagan graves to workshop floors to ecclesiastical settings. The glitz and glamour of early medieval table wear! (Although probably not as fancy as the glassware also shown here which is roughly of a similar time period).

I definitely want to do more of this and improve my tin application skills 😅 Matching jug hopefully to come.

Fire and clay. Simple, effective and age old.
And extra special, these are made from clay found on the bank of my local river 💚

Getting a few examples of ceramic oil lamps ready for the ancient Caledonia Camp with .leather and others ready for 2 weekends time!
(A couple of bigger beakers snuck into this firing too 🤫)

Check the link in my bio if you want more details or to join us and nab a last minute spot on a week (or weekend) of historical crafting 🔥

A great time had experimenting with Icelandic viking age pottery over the past weekend at 'A Past in Flames' event at in Iceland. 🔥🔥🔥 What a joy to be invited along and meet the talented crafters and reenactors coming together at an awesome site.

But the mystery of Icelandic viking age pottery still remains 🤔 Almost no pottery is found from the settlement period of Iceland which is unusual given that the settlers were from ceramic-using cultures, and there IS clay there... So the puzzle is: did they just not make much pottery? Or did it not survive in the soil there over time?

Using local Icelandic clay I made and fired some pots. The plan is that they will be used and/ or buried for different lengths of time in the soil to see how they hold up over time. Can't wait to hear the results of that!

Interestingly though, their local clay feels very different from anything I've used before. It was crumbly and SO prone to cracking! Tricky stuff to work with. I loved locals coming by and giving me tips though, like apparently it has to dry SUPER slowly to not crack. And I was told a few secret areas do have better clay.

Almost all the pots unfortunately cracked with drying and it was also a less robust clay during firing than I'm used to so one got broken by a log on the fire. A real learning curve with this clay, and I realise now this clay needs more time and care than I'd planned for (hence some spalling in the fire 😅).

Now I just want to do more experiments!
Thanks again for having me and my friends over from Scotland to join in with the event and enjoy Iceland!

Back to my roots as an iron smelter and experimental archaeologist this past week at for the 'Stone to Sword' project alongside and an awesome forge team throughout the week 🔥

We smelted iron from ore. We spent around 2 days forging it from a bloom into bars. We forged and refined an iron age short sword. Success!
All in a field in Wiltshire using log bellows and a clay forge on the ground. Seemingly simple but so effective.

But extra special to me, we made this wee knife too. The first item I've ever had made for me of bloomery iron that I smelted in my 10 or so years of smelting 🤩
(Shown here alongside bog ore and an iron bloom).

It was a joy to share the progress and process of the project with everyone who'd stop by and see how we were doing in the heat of the metalwork workshop, day after day. No better way to learn the true skill and humongous effort of making and shaping a material like iron in the past than doing it ourselves! Huge respect to the Iron Age craftspeople!

Shiny new logo!!! ✨

So I thought I'd take a minute to reintroduce myself as the being behind the pottery and crafts here. I'm Emma, Scottish archaeologist turned potter/ crafter. I'm usually off making a million projects all at once, researching things, looking for good moss spots in the woods or grabbing a few moments of hobbity peace in the garden. Found part-time in a library too.

It's 2 years since I turned my hand to being a professional crafter and I'm so grateful for the support and interest in my work both here and at events, so come say hi if you ever see me at a stall!

And the other creature behind the scenes of Bog Born is my faithful and often impatient Bog Dog. Usually found huffing and being annoyed with me for still working away in the studio, when I should CLEARLY be walking her in the woods already 😂 She's normally right, we should be in the woods...

Serene in the golden blooms ☀️

The guy has an intentionally wonky shape made to fit and cradle the hand perfectly 💛 I find it weirdly satisfying to hold.

Rock art has been a big inspiration lately. But rock of all things preserves ancient designs well through the ages. I always wonder how many similar designs carved in wood, bone, dirt, or even just painted, there once was.

The Pictish symbols are famously known from the epic stone carvings around Scotland. But I find it really cool that they were also carved on little portable items like jewellery sometimes.
I like to think the Picts and ancient people of Scotland would enjoy these wee bowls...
But who knows, maybe putting these symbols on bowls would completely not make sense to them since the exact meaning of these rock symbols aren't truly known to us 🤷🌀

Cup and ring marks will always inspire and fascinated me. What's anyone's theories about what they mean or represent?

Full swing ahead with the Artisan and Reenactors Market .
🏺Pots galore based on artefacts from prehistory to late medieval. 🏺
Find me and geek out about pots and archaeology for the next 2 days in the Warwickshire Events Centre near Coventry.

Get your wool at the ready! New drop spindles! 🌀 Ceramic versions, based on viking age 9th-10th century antler whorls that have been found.

All ready for this weekend!

A couple of weird medieval ones. Dancing figures based on a big medieval jug.
And of course, medieval face mugs: yet again looking un-amused 😂

Find these guys at this weekend!!! 15th-17th March near Coventry.

These tiny and mighty Wifies are the Venus of Orkney, a.k.a the Westray Wifie. She's a 5,000 year old Neolithic figurine found in Orkney, the Northern Isles of Scotland.

This 4cm tall sandstone carving (recreated here in ceramic) is the oldest depiction of a human yet found in Scotland! And one of only 3 Neolithic human figures yet found from all of the UK! So she's pretty special.
And she's maybe related to a whole host of other venus figurines found throughout stone age Europe too.

These ladies will be joining me at in Coventry, 15th-17th March.

See this face?
Not amused... Why?
Because apparently medieval jugs were not amused creatures!

This character is inspired by a 13th to 14th century jug from the English midlands. I just adore how weird medieval aesthetics and imaginations were.
(The original artefact is shown in picture 4)

This one is destined for in Coventry in a couple of weeks. Hopefully see some of you there!

The pots are in the kiln right this minute, waiting for the market. Excited!

Just a bit of admiration for black 🖤 and white 🤍 wares. I've been loving these lately, and the super smoothness of this gorgeous white earthenware. It's fun to play with simplicity when my default is ALL the colours.

Anyway, here's me promoting my modern pottery whilst I'm full steam ahead making historical pottery for an upcoming market 🤓

Frost made my greenware pots grow dragon scales 😮🐉 It's been real cold the past few days and I guess I should've thought my freshly thrown pots would freeze in the unheated workshop ❄️

I'm both gutted that I can't finish these how I planned, but also curious to see how this frost-formed texture would turn out if fired 🤔 Ceramics always keeps me learning!

The pots are all cosied up after our last market of 2023.

Thank you so so much to everyone who has supported and encouraged my clay creating dreams this year!!!

The wheel is getting a rest for a few weeks, and then I'll be back at it as 2024 dawns 🐸🏺🙌

Treat your Yule tree 🎄✨❄️

The forest faces are back and frolicking in the woods as winter approaches ❄️✨🍄

This pair are available if anyone wants to adopt them, as a pair, or as individual forest spirits. 🐸

Festive events in Perthshire where awesome handmade pots I've been working hard on will soon be 🎄❄️🦌⛄

The Shroom Folk have finally sprouted! 🍄 They've been popping up around the workshop for a wee while and they've finally got together to introduce themselves. This lot are the Amanita clan with one Chanterelle friend.

They'll be around at in Edinburgh this Saturday (October 21st) looking for new cosy homes for the autumn. As you can see they love to look over your plants.
🍄🌱🍄

FireFest 2023 complete! 🔥 What a great event put on, uniting all us fans of firey crafts along with a cosy hearth and fire-cooked feasts every day.

I was honoured to guide people in creating prehistoric style pottery and what a brilliant time: from working with the clay, to coaxing the pots into the fire and transforming them to ceramic the next day! Clay is magical, thanks everyone who came and made pots with me!

The mushrooms have sprouted, the pumpkins are ripe and the leaves are turning.

Best time of the year, plus some exciting workshops and markets coming up!

Come say hi and peruse some pottery at them ✨🍄✨

Working with earth and fire this past weekend at the Gathering by tannery was such a pleasure. My favourite days are spent making Prehistoric pots, especially amongst such excellent and admiral humans. And the fire was kind to us with these pots made on a soggy day. Amazing to experience a glimpse of life from 4,000 years ago.

Most of these creations are by all the Gathering community. 42 pots in all I think, so we were busy! Thanks for all the conversations, stories and fire support. And special thanks to for the amazing golden wild clay from Sussex.
Until next time!

Other amazing facilitators: .felt and many more 🌀🌞🪶🏺

What a brilliant weekend of Pictish shenanigans thanks to . It was a pleasure to chat Pictish crafts with everyone, and be joined by my lovely fellow Pict and font of knowledge on historical foraging .
Any weekend full of moss crafting, tasty pickled mushrooms and a group of lovely fellow re-enactors and visitors to share it with is a good one!

Now I'll reluctantly drag myself back the modern world 😅

Magical mug collection, making it's way to , Glasgow this Sunday! 🌙✨🍄☠️

Trades Hall, Glassford Street, Sunday 6th August. 12 - 17.00 Come see some incredible alternative stalls!