The nice thing about the green men, is that they all seem to end up with their own personalities! The potter makes them free hand, and they are a favourite demonstration make with the fair attendees as they like watching them develop, and often come past several times to see how they end up! I always say (although the potter denies this) that they end up looking happy or grumpy depending on the potters mood (and really moody if the weather is terrible and we are getting cold!!)
The website enquiry we had last week was about if we have ever made Green Women, and the answer is kind of!
The Green Man is a traditional pagan symbol for New life, rebirth and essentially Spring. Adopted as a Christian symbol later on to encourage pagans to convert, the symbol remained that of a Man.
A couple of years ago a lady that I got into discussion with at a craft fair, told me about the mythical Green Lady symbol ( I say mythical as there is almost no information about this available so it is unsure whether this was invented to even things up a bit!)
Certainly the pagans felt women were equal as the god of earth herself is a woman (Mother Nature?)
Anyway I was told that the Green Lady symbol was the opposite to the green Man, so where as he was Spring/Summer she was Autumn/Winter. Based on this information we made this lady.
She has Holly leaves instead of the Oak/Vine leaves of the Green Man. We have made a few of these since and they have all found new homes. We currently don't have one, so the potter is under instruction to make a new lady next week at the next fair. I think she needs longer hair though!
Why not come along and see how she is looking! Embar Pottery will be at the Weald of Kent Craft and Design show at Penshurst TN11 8DG from the 3rd to the 5th of May.
http://www.thecraftshows.co.uk/kent/spring/
Wow - that's cracking; love the hair! Was it a self-portrait? :-)
ReplyDeleteTsk Cheeky!
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