Mata Ortiz Miniature Rabbit Pottery Debi Bugarini Fire and Ice with Card Box

A miniature hand built pottery rabbit by Debi Flanigan Bugarini, sold under the Fire and Ice label, with the artist information card, the printed Fire and Ice box and the organza pouch. The rabbit sits upright with the ears laid back along the shoulders, the whole surface textured in fine incised fur, tiny black glass beads set as eyes, and darkened tips to the ears.  The card that comes with it states the method in the maker's own terms: Debi Flanigan Bugarini is an American artist who married into Mata Ortiz, a small pottery village in Mexico, she uses a toothpick to make the texturing and glass beads for the eyes, and because the animals are so small she fires the pieces right in the fireplace of her simple home. Mata Ortiz is the village in Chihuahua where Juan Quezada rebuilt an entire pottery tradition from potsherds in the 1970s and then taught it to his neighbours, turning a settlement with no craft industry into one of the best known pottery centres in the Americas. Work from the village is normally hand coiled without a wheel and fired in open or improvised kilns, which is exactly what the card describes.  Condition is very good. The figure is intact with both ears and both glass bead eyes present, the incised fur texture is crisp, and there is a small pale spot on one front paw shown under a pointer in the photographs. The card, box and pouch are all present with light wear to the card edges.  No rule measurement was supplied for this item.