As part of my farm girl pottery series of work, I decided to make some totems that incorporated “pieces” of farm life. These “pieces” of farm life were old rusted pieces from farm equipment – equipment essential for the process of farming – plows, tractors, rotary hoes, etc.

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Here’s a trial totem in the bisqued stage.
totem, farm implement parts, rusted iron, rotary hoe, disc, tractor plough parts, plow parts, totems, farm totems,
Bisqued clay pieces to the totem, waiting to be pitfired.

The totems used the farm implement pieces as the base or topper of the totem and clay pieces were created for the top part. Each clay piece was handbuilt out of raku clay, bisque fired, fired to cone 6, then pitfired to give them some color. I actually pitfired them twice as I thought they looked too dark and finally came up with a look that I liked.

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I refired these as I thought they were too dark.
totem, farm implement parts, rusted iron, rotary hoe, disc, tractor plough parts, plow parts, totems, farm totems,
All pieces were pitfired…twice!

I found a guy in Fredericksburg, Texas that had a barn full of old, rusty farm implement parts. I bought a few and started stacking them up on rebar and metal conduit pipe. They were awesome!

totem, farm implement parts, rusted iron, rotary hoe, disc, tractor plough parts, plow parts, totems, farm totems,
What a treasure trove! Rusted farm implement parts!
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I selected a few pieces to stack up for the base of the totems.
totem, farm implement parts, rusted iron, rotary hoe, disc, tractor plough parts, plow parts, totems, farm totems,
Each piece of rusted iron has so much character – so fun! These are parts of plows, tractors, and other farm implements.

Here’s the final look!

I placed them at the end of our driveway.
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farm equipment, rust, tractor parts, old tractor parts, totems, ceramic,
farm equipment, rust, tractor parts, old tractor parts, totems, ceramic,
farm equipment, rust, tractor parts, old tractor parts, totems, ceramic,
farm equipment, rust, tractor parts, old tractor parts, totems, ceramic,
farm equipment, rust, tractor parts, old tractor parts, totems, ceramic,
farm equipment, rust, tractor parts, old tractor parts, totems, ceramic,
farm equipment, rust, tractor parts, old tractor parts, totems, ceramic,
farm equipment, rust, tractor parts, old tractor parts, totems, ceramic,
farm equipment, rust, tractor parts, old tractor parts, totems, ceramic,
farm equipment, rust, tractor parts, old tractor parts, totems, ceramic,

If you’d like to commission totems -one or several – contact me @ marian@farmgirlpottery.com

Or if you’re interested in a workshop on making your own totem, contact me – marian@farmgirlpottery.com

Happy totem making to you all!

Marian