a kiln god is a small clay sculptural creature that stays on/in/near a kiln while it’s firing, to watch over the pottery inside and protect it
mine are all vaguely humanoid and holding pottery, but they can be anything
a lot of people leave their kiln gods unglazed, and only ever make one or two. because I work with a shared kiln, my kiln gods have to be inside the kiln so they don’t get bumped or broken, so it makes more sense to glaze them and keep making more
(^this one I kept, she lives on my pottery desk)
people have lots of little traditions around kilns and pottery. there are so many variables to successfully finishing a piece of pottery, and many of the steps are out of our control. it’s nice to have a kiln god watching over our work
if you take a pottery class, your teacher might mention the kiln gods. for some potters/studios they’re more of a concept than anything physical
what can I say, humans just love to make little guys