About

My name is Jane Mount. I do a bunch of things, and for a few years now I've been making Ceranimals.

They are small ceramic animal figurines, from about one to three inches tall. I fire some of them at cone 6 oxidation, in a small electric kiln at my home. It's off-grid so they are fully solar-powered! (Yes, you can run a kiln off solar power, it's amazing!) I also fire some at a community art center called Hui No'eau, and those are at cone 10 reduction, in a large gas-fired kiln.

Below you can see some pics of the creation process. I make some that are fairly clearly certain animals, and some that could be a number of animals, and some that are animals I wish existed. I'm obsessed with trying out different amazing glazes and combinations of them so that every Ceranimal has their own thing going on.

The most wonderful thing (and perhaps the most frustrating, ha) about ceramics is that a LOT of the outcome is driven by chance. You can do everything the exact same way you did it before and the result will be completely different, due to how hot the kiln got, how slowly it cooled off, where the piece was in the kiln, how thick or thin you applied the glaze, the shape of the creature you applied the glaze to, etc., etc. etc. There is nothing quite like the dopamine hit of opening a kiln to see how things turned out.

I wanted that feeling of chance and luck and just freaking MAGIC to come your way, too, and that is why I'm doing these as surprise boxes. I really do believe the little guy you need is the guy that will find their way into your warm and cozy hands.

I pack them up in a tiny bag, in a cute little box, inside a shipping box with a postcard, a sticker sheet, and a certificate of authenticity/adoption papers signed by me. You can see an unboxing video below, and you can see a bunch of examples in the gallery and in the Recent Adoptions page (where hopefully you will also post yours!)

Please do let me know what you think!