One of our sheep has pride of place high up on the bookshelves in our living room. It's a hand-made pottery ram that we have owned for a few months. It has a quite individual personality and we felt it was crying out for a name. We often give names to pieces in our art collection. In fact pottery firms sometimes do this too, for example the whimsical "Ewe And Me" sheep characters produced by Border Fine Arts. So how do you go about choosing a name for a ram?
We began by trying, unsuccessfully, to find out more about the ram. The sticker on the base suggested it might be a studio piece or possibly sold in a shop. We Googled but failed to find any information on the internet. If you've come across Trinity Pottery or Stuart Taylor, please let us know as we'd love to find out more about this sheep.
The spirally horns and long thin nose are its most distinctive features. The wavy wool coat is represented by spaghetti-like strands of clay built up on the main body of the sheep. It is finished roughly and unglazed giving a rustic texture that helps to create its interesting personality. Our lack of information about this ram gave us the opportunity to create our own story about his origins. His long, thick, brown, curly coat and his imposing horns evoke an image of an upland sheep in a cold, harsh, mountainous environment like the Scottish Highlands. We can just imagine him sheltering from a snowy blizzard behind the wall of a ruined castle.
After looking through a list of boys' names in a dictionary we drew up a shortlist of those with a Scottish origin. We toyed with Hamish, Angus, Fraser and others but finally settled on Alistair as his name and we think it suits him very well!
Love Your Art
Vicky
Vicky
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