The animal lover will find a unique form of art created in part by the animal itself. 

Meet the Animals

Visit our link to Birdloversonly.org and meet Snowball the Cockatoo

Kirsten will donate 20% of all Macaw and Cockatoo pottery proceeds to Bird Lovers Only.

Kirsten's Clay
Kirsten Holmes, a zookeeper at the Metro Richmond Zoo in Virginia, created this style of handmade pottery in early 2004. She collects footprints from live zoo animals and molds clay stamps from the original imprints. In addition to exotic animals, she also has a collection of North American animals living in the Adirondack Park in northern New York State.

Each piece of pottery is individually hand-thrown and then altered with a footprint.  Before the pot is glazed, wax is hand painted on the footprint to resist the glaze on that part of the clay.  This creates an unglazed portion on the surface that makes each footprint more visible.  Each piece of pottery comes with a small picture of the animal whose print is displayed. The animal’s description is also written on the underside of the piece.

Click to select a glaze and to see the different glaze results (some subtle and some obvious).