Primitive European Ceramic Pendants

I wanted to have a go a creating some ceramic pendants in a rustic, ancient style - as much a reality of my own novice skill levels as anything else - based on old European folk art.

As you do not see a lot of this kind of design these days; the focus tends to be on highly-detailed pewter and other composite metal objects - often made in Chinese factories using a die and metal machine stamping methods - I decided to try and bring it all 'back home' so to speak. As beautiful as these store bought ornate objects are, they are not hand-crafted, and the prototypes they were based upon would have been worn only by the wealthy and nobles. I want to have a go at reproducing the kind of 'earthy' pendants the ordinary 'volk' would have worn back in the so called Dark Ages, and also during the earlier 'Celtic' Age.

LEFT TO RIGHT: Saxon 'Life' Rune, Irish Double Spiral, Thor's Hammer, Sheela NaGig, My Own Design, Thor's Hammer, Grampus Head (Czech), 'English' Celtic Spiral.