Angel Dilemma

You all know that I love to make angels.  Over the years I have made various kinds of angels but the past couple of years I have pretty much concentrated on the ceramic head and hands and the rest crochet, kind of angel.

One Sunday morning before Christmas I was sitting in the choir loft at Church listening to the sermon one of our Rectors was giving.  He was talking about angels - I perked up - now here was something most interesting!  One of the first things he mentioned was that while he didn't know of anyone who had actually seen a real angel, for some reason most people were under the impression that angels were musicians.  He was right  of course.  How many times have you seen angel figurines or pictures depicting angels holding or playing some sort of instrument - a harp, a violin, a lute?

Then he mentioned that in the bible all the angels were male -  Gabriel, Michael, Raphael!  Again he was right - and this would be another thing that I have never really thought about.  So then how is it that we have come to think of angels as female?  The ones you buy for your tree are female.  The ones I make are female.  It got me to thinking...

I should make some male angels.

I think I could, but I am having a hard time finding female ceramic heads - wherever would I find male ceramic heads?  Next question - how does one dress a male angel?  Would they wear robes or trousers?  What would they hold in their arms - instruments or hockey sticks?  Would anyone buy them?

You see my dilemma?  This is going to take some careful consideration.  I'll need to do some drawings and see what I can come up with.  This might just be the design challenge of 2012!