Thrown in Lagos, Algarve, at Galeria Mealha, using Spanish porcelain (Vicente Diez – Porcelana Artika XTR).
Partly coated in porcelain slip with 20% added yellow stain. Bisqued in gas kiln, to cone 06.
Streams of glaze added once back home in Ottawa. Fired to cone 6, in oxidation.
Collaborative piece, with Dominique Gaie.
A chance meeting, along the Rideau river; something clicks. We talk trees, bark, about what we do. I pot; she paints. Feel like decorating my vase? I ask. She looks at me, perplexed. I tell her about the vase I’d been making. You could sgrafitto your design. But, c’est quoi ça, sgrafitto? You’ll figure it out, I reply. And she did. But Oh no! She knew nothing about handling raw clay. As she worked, the rim broke. I carved away the broken rim. I asked: Still want to decorate this piece? Wabi-sabi? Take on board the mishaps along the way? She nods.
I had built the vase somedays earlier, using black stoneware clay, coating it with a patch of white porcelaneous slip, and another patch of ochre-coloured glaze. Using my tools, Dominique started creating trails through the slip, and through the glaze, down to the dark clay beneath.
Once bisque fired, I poured a satin white glaze on the inside, and used a spray gun to apply a very fine layer of transparent glaze over the outside surface.
My first collaborative piece; Dominique’s first time working with clay.
Slab-built; fired in oxidation, to cone 6.
Leaves, Soil and Sun
Wheel-thrown; decorated with slips and glazes. Stoneware; fired to cone 6, in an electric kiln. Ht: 5″; dia: 5″
Life returns, yet again, each spring. I see grasses, reeds and blossoms, bursting forth from the still damp grainy surface of the earth; all bathed in the sun.
To enhance the variety of tones, I trail lines of thick slip onto the still raw clay. These create a surprising roughness, contrasting with the smoothness of the light glaze wash, green for foliage, ochre for soil. Grains of ilmenite sprinkled from my fingertips create an added sense of depth. Sometimes, as a reference to twigs and branches, I apply light dry-brush strokes of black.
Height: 30 cm, 30 cm; diameter at base: 9 cm
Here, I was trying to find colour combinations that worked, that complemented one another, against the dark clay. With these two cylinders, I first darkened the black clay (which once fired turns into a dark tan shade) by sponging black underglaze all over, and, in places, with two coats.
Once bisque fired to cone 06, I used a glaze which is sensitive to the thickness of the coat, and to the surface beneath it. I knew the mossy green glaze would give me a variety of tones, and then all I had to do was add another squirt with a slip trailer, and a few splatters with a glaze-loaded toothbrush. Finally, I used the atomiser for a light spray of transparent over the remaining blackened surface.
The result was Moss on Black.
Stoneware. Black clay, underglaze and glazes, poured and splattered. Fired in oxidation to cone 6
Height: 26 cm, 33 cm; diameter at base: 8.5 cm, 8.5
Moss, lichen, creepers; from the darkness, to the light.
Stoneware; black clay, with underglaze and glazes. Fired in oxidation to cone 6
Pair: Height: 30 cm; diameter at base: 9 cm
Creepers, reaching to the light.
Stoneware; black clay, fired in oxidation to cone 6
The black clay, which once fired, turns brown. Here the raw clay is coated with sponged on black underglaze to achieve a darker colour. Yellow slip is then squirted with a thick swoosh onto the still raw surface. Once bisque fired, other glazes are applied using either a slip trailer or a brush.
Slab-built, with white stoneware clay; textured, cut away at rim.
Twice fired to cone 6. For the first firing, I poured a shino glaze to cover the entire piece. For the second firing, I first made adjustments to the amount of glaze on the ridges, then added a matte, dark glaze into the crevasses, enhancing the contrast between the thicknesses of the bark).
Stoneware, fired to cone 6, in oxidation. Height: 30 cm; width at base: 10 cm
Slab-built, using white stoneware clay, then coated with a porcelaneous slip, turning the surface into a white canvas for my design.
A tree emerges from the long, dark winter, to bloom with the first hints of spring. I throw, blow, squirt and drip glaze and oxides onto the lightly-damp surface. A small amount of transparent glaze, blown onto the bright yellow heaps of of yellow stain held it solidly in place during the firing.
Fired to cone 6, in oxidation.
A slab impressed against bark, then twisted into the shape of a tree trunk.
Stoneware, black clay, fired to cone 6, in oxidation.
Slab-built, with a dark black clay, finished on the wheel; the rim cut away to firm waves.
To provide a variety of dark black tones, darker than the grey that the black clay would become once fired, I dipped a small, rough sponge in black underglaze, and swept it up the length of the vase, several times. I wanted to create a sense of moving waters, and swirling vegetation in the depths. The first step was pouring a thin layer of a matte, olive-grey glaze, from the top, and down, holding the cylinder at a sharp angle. This glaze, when applied thin over the dark surface, turns ashen, a lovely surface over which to squirt streams of yellow slip, tinged with rutile, sunlight reflecting off the swirling kelp. A few quick strokes of black, high-grit glaze applied with a hard-bristled brush, further break up the surface.
Stoneware, fired to cone 6, in oxidation.