Terra Spiralis

| Elara Blackwood | Terracotta Dreams (1923) | Mixed media: terracotta, clay, ceramic, and found objects on wooden panel |

The Terracotta Dreams relief sculpture stands as one of the most puzzling pieces in the Ravensfield Collection. Created during Elara Blackwood's reclusive period in Cornwall, local folklore claims she discovered a deposit of clay with peculiar properties beneath the ruins of a Bronze Age settlement.

The sculpture features a central terracotta face—reminiscent of ancient deity masks—encircled by ceramic discs. These orbital elements, glazed in maritime blues, earthen oranges, and sun-bleached yellows, create an illusion of perpetual motion that has caused visitors to report mild vertigo while viewing it.

Each disc contains microscopic patterns that defy conventional ceramic techniques. When examined under ultraviolet light, these markings align themselves into what appears to be text, though its nature remains a subject of heated debate among scholars.

-Dr. Helena Frost, "Cryptographic Analysis of the Blackwood Relief"

The sculpture's history darkened in 1924, during its inaugural exhibition at the Ravensfield Col. Marion Pierce, the twelve-year-old daughter of a local potter, became fixated with the piece. She spent entire afternoons before it, her lips moving in what witnesses described as "silent dialogue with the circles."

In her diary, discovered after her disappearance, Marion wrote about "voices dwelling in the circles" and "messages carved in ancient clay." She began creating perfect replicas of the ceramic discs in her father's workshop, despite having no prior pottery experience.

Three months after her first encounter with the Terracotta Dreams, Marion vanished. The only trace was a warm ceramic disc found among her bedsheets, bearing markings identical to those in Blackwood's original work. The investigation yielded no results.

Analysis of the clay has revealed trace elements unknown to terrestrial geology, suggesting that Blackwood's masterwork might serve as more than sculpture—perhaps as a threshold between our world and whatever realm now holds young Marion Pierce in its embrace.

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