After a failed trial and explosion in her kiln, artist Linda Illumanardi of Altadena California made a second attempt at creating a unique vessel for a chiropractor’s office. Linda was commissioned by Dr. Mike DeNapoli, a chiropractor in Pasadena, to createa new pot for his ficus tree which had outgrown its current planter. Linda ended up sculpting and building this four sided vessel with clay and several coats of white then black glaze. Once the piece was fired and ready Linda began the meticulous process of studying and designing a rhinoceros skeleton for the face of the planter. She came up with a striking design that wrapped around the planter. She etched this rhino skeleton right into various gray glazes to get back down to the initial white glaze layer. Six carving tools and 48 hours later her rhino came to life! After one more go in the kiln it was time to seal so that the pot wouldn’t get water damage from holding a living plant. She asked a contractor who recommended some of our epoxies to her. After some research, Linda decided to go with Westcoat. This experimental process was daunting but she took her time and made this vessel complete using our EC-12 Epoxy Primer and then our EC-32 High Build Clear Epoxy Topcoat. Linda says the brilliance of the epoxy highlighted and added the perfect sheen to make the skeleton really pop!