Hi there id like to introduce my self first.

My nick is mayhem and my name is mick.

Im currenlty trying to get point of views on a new Cauldron desgin we are working on.

I personly am a none pagan but the lady who im and doing this resurch for is a pagan.

I have some question and some samples pic's i would like to show your selfs of the desingns she has come up with and would like feed back on them and any idears you may have.

First id like to post a excert from the web site we are creating to give you a idear of why she has disigned them and what we have so far.

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Welcome to (remove for now as im not here to sell them)

Years ago when I was looking for a cauldron I couldn’t find what I wanted and in the end settled for the closest thing. It occurred to me that there are many others in this situation, so I have set up to manufacture what you need. Most cauldrons are made in the traditional style of a pot belly and are cast from a set mold. I found this style difficult to work with and went looking for something more open. I wanted one to a specific size with the Venus pentagram on the underneath.




So this is the design that I am now manufacturing.

The earth energy (female) is brought up from below through the pentagram so giving more power, standing on five legs at each pentacle point also helps to hold the energy into the cauldron. The top is more open making the cauldron into a cone shape and giving plenty of space for the God energy (male) to be guided into the cauldron.

There is also a special area in the center of the pentagram which has been made to house special object, words, crystals, personal items, etc. so as to bring extra power to your good works.

The one at present we can offer is 11" dia open top, 7" high and 7" dia bottom
On 5 ” legs

These are made in England from Mild Steel, painted black with heat resistant paint.
(note these are to be used for ritual purposes only, eg water gazing, flame watching.)

Comes complete with instructions on how to seal to your energy

These Cauldrons are for ritual purposes only and not suitable for food preparation.



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please ignor the sizes stated for now. Allso please dont ask for prices or where to buy as these items are not for retail just yet. We need to see if this is feezable first.

Now for some question ?

1) we are looking at 3 sizes and these are 7" , 9" , 11" Diamter what do u think of these sizes.

2) We have added a Pentgram and spell Holder undernith what are your thoughts.

3) What would you consider paying for such a item.

4) is there any thing you think is a Must when buying a cauldron.

5) Does the box colour help sell the cauldron to you.

6) Does the inclusion of the history and some small spells help with such a item.

7) We are thinking of 3 types of cour and these are Mat Black, Gloss Black, Sparkly black (looks real good in sun). what do you think of these coulours.

8) You cannot cook food in these cauldrons and they are purely for ritual and spells does or would this put you off.

any thing else you may have to say would be helpfull and many thks for reading and takeing part.

Mick

Very beautiful Mick, but I'm sorry to say my answer to Q8 is yes it would. For me, cooking and heating is often part of spellwork. I have an old huge black iron le creuset and it isn't a great shape but it does everything I want from distilling elderflower champagne to making icecream, to making stews and making bath products and cosmetics.

If I were to fork out on something with aesthetic value such as your pots I would need to use it heavily. I see yours is made out of a lighter metal than mine - what about something like copper which is easy to work with but has a lot of heathen signicance and could be beautiful and practical. Nordic runes?

I suggest you look here http://www.freewebs.com/whittlingwiddlersw...acredvessel.htm

The lady i work for sort of is looking into re-tooling of the factory first before we move forward.

1 of the things we have come across from passing the samples arround is cost. Now most belevers in paganiusm (hopefully spelt right) would not pay a premium for such a product.

The reason why i say premuim is the cost of metal right at this moment is time is 4 fold of what it used to be last year. We do have a brass one but this was built as a cost excesize and to say the least was not cheap and to sell such a product would beyond most nnormal peoples expensies. All these cauldrons are hand made and hand tapped untill we have the full tooling and rolling macheans in place. When we do have these in place cost will drop considrably making it more accesable to people price range.

Hope this explanins why it is like this at the moment.

Mick

(p.s excuse my spelling i have dislexia)

nice web site all though to be honist not of much use. but thank you any way,

Your welcome

got to add about that web site with the resurch i have done into such crafts i allways thought that weeing into caudrons was not realy the way to go, as the body is getting rid of bad fluid and thus this was not good for spells as you introducing a waste element into the spell.

Just a thought though and i could be totaly mislead ....

allso wouldnt it realy be venus that should be offerd depeninding on its placement and pagan rituals as it traced the path of the pentgun as in undernith the cauldron. Allso this represents the female energy better as with earth. hehe

Well wee *aim* to please so whatever tickles your fancy

honeywitch - sorry i said brass i ment copper.

Allso these are the full sizes -

Sizes

Large = Top Dia 13”- Bottom Dia 8” – Height 9” + height of Legs 3”
Medium = Top Dia 11” – Bottom Dia 7” – Height 7” + height of Legs 3”
Small = Top Dia 9” – Bottom Dia 5” – Height 5” + height of Legs 3”

Sorry my sizes were wrong.

Maybe you should just make a few and see if they sell. The pentagram underneath might be a limiting factor because not all pagans think the same about it. Also, the shape is not how one expects a cauldron to be. There's something about a round pot-bellied pot that speaks of earth and fullness and expectancy. I'd be interested to know what others think though.

p.s. Wolvie behave yourself in public!

Have you considered the fact that Wiss contains Nitrogen, a fertiliser, fertility relating to Venus perhaps ?

No, will not

wolverinehmm no and to be honist im learning some thing new every day (well every hour the last few days) and i thank you for that info its a bit of a eye opener.

I how ever dont think any one would be happy me taking a wizz in every coldron we make. I allways thought as well than if a man was to offer some thing it was best to offer a diffrent type of bodly fluid all though this takes us way beyond and off the subject that was intended here ...

Julai as for the pentigram we can remove it. Its not a nessesty for the cauldron all though its been a 50/50 when ppl view it. Ill have a talk with the boss tommorw about this and we could offer such a product.

Well a *Womans* Wiss has Nitrogen in it too

I suggest you consult your *Pagan* friend

Nice Pentagram, but it looks a bit like a bucket to me! Sorry!

Sorry mate, this idea seems good but feels like one that won't work. Doesn't hold water so to speak. Most witches would use anything handy or a favourite old fish kettle they found in a garage sale. Some would only use something they can prepare potions etc. in (kept separate from the food pot I hope except by kitchen witches) and as Julai says, most of those would laugh at a pentagram which is a ceremonial magick/wiccan device of limited use. Earth is only part of the elemental make up of it of course. Read up on some alchemy

The cauldren is only partly symbolic. In lots of magick is it the vagina of a female witch that is used! And when it is needed as a cooking pot in the earthly realm, well a cast iron pot works best and is less painful.

A bucket is a bucket by any name. This idea is flawed and although I like to support industry and flair and effort you want feed back and this is it.

I agree with Julai that the pot bellied pot is nicer to look at. I don't use a cauldron but if i had one i would but would use it much more for cooking and stuff and i'd go for a pot bellied one.
The pentagram would have no significance i think to most though if you're going to sell them in shops then it probably would help to sell as would the box.
Size wise, personally i'd go for a bigger one as it would seem to be more practical but maybe someone would go for the smaller one for ritual/symbolic purposes.

Yeah. Um.... its not a bad looking object.

I never really "got" cauldrons. I mean I can understand someone using a cooking pot, to make something in and adding a bit of "shazam" to it, like a tea or herbal remedy or something like that, but for that you need to be able to cook in it, other wise its just a big tin thing. Pentagrams limit it to certain forms of magick.

I dont really understand what you would use it for. Especially if you cant cook in it. And what is a "spell catcher" or whatever it is to help release the spell??? I dont understand that at all. What on earth does that do?

Really nice. The problem for me would be that the only use for cauldrons I have is to make certain brews and stews and things like that, that are part of magical workings but also need to be eaten or drunk. I do like the shape though, My first cast-iron cauldron was that kinda shape.

I love 'cauldrons', all shapes, all sizes. However, that said, they find me, I wouldn't buy a specifically manufactured cauldron, but over the years I've collected all sorts, wooden, brass, copper and cast iron.

I get them from car boot sales, charity shops and I've paid from 20p up to £5 (for a huge cast iron pot that I use as a fire pit).

For ingestible workings my 'cauldron' is a Victorian jam pan. Other cauldrons have other uses to avoid cross contamiantion, some are used as planters others contain pencils! As Julia points out, it's the round pot bellied shape that speaks to me.

Personally, I wouldn't buy a newly made cauldron that was specifically made to be a cauldron, I prefer something with a bit of age to it. I enjoy that it's found it's way to me rather than just being bought for £21.99 of Ebay.

That said, I'm sure there is a market out there, as Ebay does sell an awful lof of newly made cauldrons. So best of luck with your project.

thank you for your advice. its all being duely noted and passed on.

Cauldrons are lovely - but they are cpoies of (unless one is fortunate enough to have an original) of a very old and practical design - the family cooking pot-cum-oven.

Nowadays the equivelant could just as easily be a stainless steel pan, or even a non-stick one!

I also collect minature cauldrons, all from charity shops. I use a black tin pail shaped planter (Tesco's garden range) that has a handle. It's quite small, light, and perfect for burning things in. I think it cost me about £4.

Potions etc get made on the stove generally using an iron pot that can also be put over a fire outside. But it's heavy.

Sorry I think you might be onto a loser with this one...

The rounded shape of the pot belly cauldron is indeed part of its symbolism, as is the fact that they traditionally have three legs if they have legs.

Even if you don't use your cauldron to cook in it needs to be capable of cooking in or its not a caudron.

I imagine mild steel will warp like buggery the instant someone puts it over a fire, and heatproof paint is usually fine on the outside of a woodstove that is lined with firebricks, but will burn off and smell horrible if its in direct contact with hot coals. The legs look too short to stand over a fire, while they are long enough to get in the way if you tried to put it on a trivet over a fire.

People either want a re-enactment historical looking thing like:



or a traditional pot belly like:



People are already making these with pentagrams on:



though personally that would put me off.

Its a crowded market, people will only buy one if they buy one at all, and I think your product has too many downsides. Sorry to be so negative, but I know how expensive retooling might be and I wouldn't want you to lose money. I think your market would be limited to newbies who don't really understand the symbolism, and fluffy bunny witches who'll buy anything if you put a pentagram on it! Mind you there are quite a lot of them...

I'd ask at a few other forums though before you make up your mind, like the OBOD one, but I'd stear clear of Heathen forums, they'd hate the pentagram!

hi there all again. yeh ive passed on this info and still waiting for the owner to get back to me but i think she has her mind set.

The mild steal is acutaly a good strong steal. they call it mild steal becuase of its type. the steal is the same used in gas fires and trust me they take more heat than most things. Allso the powder coating is heat proof powder coating again the same used on gas fires. The lady doing these runs a gas fire company and has so for ni on 15/20 years so as in heat proof you wouldnt get any better.

The reason why you cannot use for cooking as they have not passed a BTS test for cooking and there for cannot be sold as such (shes covering her own back on his matter). Mind you saying that nither has the pot belly cauldrons as i found out yesterday (that took alot of phone calls to find that info out).

She is offering to build them to order as well. this means if you dont what a pentgun or spell holder or you would just like 3 legs these can all be built.

Im still waiting for feed back though and will get back to you all.

Mick

not to high jack someones topic but does any one know any tips for prserving a cast iron cauldron? i have a 4" open top pop belly cast iron cauldron and it has held water in it amoung other things and it is starting to develop rust. Is there any way to stop this? and how should i maintane it?

Someone just said, will they fit in the microwave, PMSL