Nicaraguan artisan Miguel Angel Calero handcrafts this decorative ceramic vase with a wide-mouthed round bowl and glazed a dark red mottled with black from pigments made from cobalt oxides and pulverized rock. The artisan etches the surface to reveal the natural sand color of the ceramic and creates images man confronted by Quetzalc�atl, the feather-headed serpent deity representing man's duality--the serpent symbolizing the physical limitations of the human body and the feathers symbolizing spirituality. Decorative etching rings the top and bottom of the vase.