A year of Chanukah Menorahs

For the last year, the focus in my studio has been chanukiot, Chanukah menorahs. I had made this Wing Menorah around 2018, thrown on the wheel with an open bottom and pressed together at the top to form the candle row. A few weeks ago I finally brought it out of storage in the kiln room into the light, and added brass cups for candles.

Wing Menorah, side 1

“Wing” Menorah, side 2

Another thrown and altered Menorah shape.

A couple of others of this type, with different designs, sold.

I was thinking of open centers to the menorahs, and also looking for a way to incorporate glass cups for oil into the next design, that allowed for the alternative of candles if wanted. I came up with this.

Luster Menorah

A subtle coat of luster over the glaze.

These are made of thrown body and foot pieces, a slab here and there, and thrown cups for glass oil cups or candles. It’s quite a throwing and constructing process. I give them elaborate surfaces:

“Starry Night” Menorah

“Wonders” Chanukah Menorah

Further exploring the idea of open space as a design element:

Many Colors Menorah (sold)

And I began adding a touch of gold luster.

After Oct. 7, 2023 I made this, with Joyful Festival of Lights and symbolic red anemones on one side and…

“The Children Have Returned to Their Borders” on the other side, because those of the hostages still living had come home. (Picture in raw stage, with underglaze but not yet glaze.)

After this (and several more “open” Chanukah menorahs), I began making each one more radically different from the rest. I drew…

Although these things are fluid concepts…

And this idea became this…

Tall “Leaf” Menorah, thrown and altered, with slab and pulled additions.

Leaving the thrown and assembled methods, I took a solid block of stoneware clay and carved into a sculptural Chanukah menorah, like a desert wall of rock. In a book of flowers of Israel (Israel Florilegia) I found a flowering with small petals, “Dahm haMaccabim”, or “Blood of the Maccabees” (which seemed nicely appropriate) and abstracted it onto the surface of the hill of “stone”.

“Stone Hill” Menorah

This idea had promise. I cut a tarpaper template and cut slabs into shape:

Hollow menorah, made of folded slab of clay. (Small electric candle can be placed inside the body to highlight the cutout words.)

“For the Miracles” Menorah

Side view, “For the Miracles” menorah

Then came this one the best in my opinion. It followed the installations across Israel of ceramic red anemones (“Calaniot”) after October 7, 2023. The installations were a means of expression by artists and many non-artists of grief and hope. It is slab constructed, with underglazes, glaze and gold luster.

“You Have Transformed my Mourning Into Dancing” Menorah

The project continues.