Category Archives: Lidded Pots

Lidded pots

Am pleased to have these two lidded pots exhibited at Galerie Côté Créations for the month of August, as part of our Ottawa Guild of Potters’ monthly showcase.

I’ve always admired the British potter Adam Buick’s moon jars, based on the traditional Korean spherical moon jars.  I have added a lid, to make a true sphere that I can use as a canvas for my multiple layers of trailed glaze. I used two glazes as the first covering, one using ochre to get the nutmeg, the other with oxides of iron and cobalt to produce the deep black. Then a wide squirt of a titanium oxide-rich glaze which works well over both these glazes, even where the previous two overlap; the titanium dioxide tends to have a slightly chrystalline effect, providing a nicely contrasting, grainy, light golden band of colour.

I took a big risk with these, and refired them, as in the initial firing the glaze did not fully cover the edge of the rims. The pieces held up nicely to this additional stress. Even better,  the second firing gave the nutmeg a higher gloss and a deeper, richer colour.

Porcelaneous stoneware, fired to Cone 6; in oxidation.

Lidded pot – Porcelain

It is always with some trepidation that I listen to friends suggesting I make something specifically for them. It all sounds innocent enough, they’d perhaps simply like to have a few more goblets to add to some earlier ones of mine they already have, and while I’m at it, why not a sugar bowl with a matching glaze decorative touch, and, pushing their luck a little, also a milk pitcher?

I wasn’t pleased with my first attempts, but my friend seems happy with this piece (I call it a lidded pot, she calls it a sugar bowl), but she will have to wait some time still for anything like a milk pitcher (I have a few waiting for bisque firing, and, if successful, they will be the subject of an upcoming post).

Below you see the other side of the piece:

lidded jar-wider top-front-3xresizedDSCN4250

Here’s another one I made, something like a lidded moon jar.

In both cases, decoration with three squirts of glaze, where a white turns blue over the dark tenmoku.

Transparent glaze inside (poured), and a light coating all over the outside  (spray-gun).

lidded jar-round-back-3xresizedDSCN4247

Second side:

lidded jar-round-front-3xresizedDSCN4246

Lidded Pot – Silver Cloud

Moving to rounded, lidded porcelain pots. Trying to keep them light, and to find the right lines, first for the shape of the pot, then for its close-fitting lid. Hoping for a steady hand, I try to make the squirts of glaze emphasize that line. A squirt of thick tenmoku first, then, when it has partially dried, I partially cover it with a watery squirt of a tin-white glaze. Finally, a fine covering of transparent 51, using the spray gun.

Fired in oxidation, to 1250°C

 

Below, close up: Silver Cloud