Seven gods (6 gods, 1 goddess) of good fortune

I've been working on this project for the last two or three weeks.




On my last trip to Japan I visited a pottery village (It used to, way back in the day, be a ninja village but when the bottom fell out of the ninja business they took up pottery making as a new line of work) and while there bought these small statues of the seven gods of fortune (七福神).




I've been thinking, since I've returned home, about the right place for them to live. Well, while clearing trees from a trail this summer and digging up stumps I cut this section and let it dry out for a month or so. Then I sanded it down, enough that the grain shows in places but not so much that it looses the rough beauty that originally attracted me. Then I put on a for or five of coats on linseed oil letting it dry fully between each coat. After another light sanding I gave it about ten coats of varnish. I turned and painted the legs and attached them with wooden pins.




So! Now this is the home for: Hotei, my favorite, the god of abundance and good health, Jurojin, god of longevity, Fukurokuju, god of wealth, verility happiness and longevity, Bishamonten, scourge of evildoers and defender of the nation, Benzaiten , goddess of eloquence, music, art and beauty, Daikokuten, god of earth, agriculture, farmers, wealth, commerce and trade and last but not least, Ebisu, god of fishermen, good fortune,honest labor, god of the ocean.