This is one of the special ornaments that I have on our tree for the past few years. It’s a gift from Hospice of Catawba Valley and inside it read ‘In memory of your loss’, it was for my mom who passed away in January of 2007.
It came in a small brown box and when I opened it I saw this handcrafted butterfly porcelain ornament inside.
It came with a some info and they have a website, hoovenandhooven.com. The paper read that this handcrafted porcelain ornament was created by the mother and daughter team of Coille and Molly Hooven. It is made entirely by hand because porcelain shrinks 20%, it is extremely temperamental. The clay is first rolled into a thin, flat slab. Each ornament is individually cut out and embossed. The drying process alone takes several days and many careful steps, each one perfectly timed. Then the porcelain is fired to 2400 degree Fahrenheit, hotter than any other clay, and becomes translucent . Fourteen steps take place before this piece is packaged for its journey to you.
If you hang the ornament to a window, light will shine through its intricate design. And thank goodness it is sunny today and I was able to capture these images this morning. They have so many neat pieces and it would make a great gift for the holiday so check out their website to see more handcrafted porcelain ornaments. I brought this one to my dad today, and have to look for another one similar to this one.
Nye Noona 
Very lovely, Nye.
Nice to have such a memory of your mom.
Thanks Jeffrey, this is a lovely piece and so thoughtful of Hospice to have given it to our family as a gift.
These are so beautiful! So nice to have something hand made.
Thanks Geni, I would love to be able to make something like this.
hand crafted things are beautiful.
lady0fdarkness, they are beautiful. I visited the website earlier and saw so many pieces that I like that I can’t decide.
It’s beautiful. I see they have many other nice designs too.
I wonder if they could add some glass or crystal pieces to it for more color and sparkle.
Cambree, adding glass or crystal will be a nice design, something worth trying if you are good with this type of art. I like to try the basic, I saw some at the street fair and thought it would be fun for us to try working with clay.