Category Archives: Vase

Patterns on the Sand 1

I start by wedging a porcelaneous clay, then insert torn slices and chunks of black clay here and there. At the wheel, I work the clay until it is carefully centered, before pulling up the walls and opening out the belly. The clay looks a little dark, and messy.

I leave it to dry till the next day, either in a damp box, or covered in plastic (it’s winter now in Canada, and with the heat on, the clay would otherwise dry far too quickly).

The magic comes the next day, when the time comes to trim the piece. As the surface clay peels away, little by little the swirling colour beneath is revealed.

Height: 15 cm; diameter: 15 cm. White stoneware, and black stoneware; fired to cone 6, in oxidation.

At the Pond: Reeds and Leaves

Height: 14 cm; diameter: 16 cm; porcelaneous stoneware, fired to cone 6, in oxidation.

I am still intrigued by, and happy to work with the same matte, copper carbonate glaze as well as the slips I was using for my earlier Ottawa Guild of Potters’ solo Celebrating Clay exhibition. Those were a collection of tall, hand-built cylinders, with some small wheel thrown vases.

What’s different this year is that I am pleased to be back throwing at the wheel, and enjoying throwing larger and larger pieces. This one is one from a couple of months ago, and still small. But there will be more, and hopefully I can confidently reproduce this bluey-green colour, which for me recalls the quiet, always changing surface of Ontario ponds and lakes

Fish Hoek Reverie

I threw this piece while in Cape Town, at the Kommetjie pottery, Zizamele. I was intrigued by the potters’ excellent use of underglazes, and thought I would give it a try too. Then brought it home, not yet glazed (below). I was still in the watercolour mood, following the two University of Cape Town summer school art classes.

Perhaps I should have left it at that. However, once home again, I coted it in a glossy transparent glaze, as I felt it to be rather bare. But that made the colours too stark. As a last resort, I coated it all over with a light yellow slip, and fired it again to cone 6.

Stoneware, underglazes, glaze, and slip. Fired in oxidation, to cone 6.

12 cm x 12 cm

Catalpa, small

This piece is inspired by trees, specifically one tree, a Northern Catalpa (number 9 in the official listing of Remarkable Trees of Canada’s Capital), growing along the Rideau River, in Ottawa, close to where I live.

I start by throwing cylinder on the wheel, then force the clay outwards until the rim starts to give way, recalling the idea of leaves waving in the breeze. After the first glaze firing, I add touches of porcelain, as a reminder of the Catalpa’s white, orchid-like blossoms.

Stoneware, porcelain, and glaze. Fired to cone 6, in oxidation.

Diameter: 21.5 cm, 11.5 cm

Deep Woods

A pair of vases suggesting leaves, reeds and moss, all catching the light around the base of an age-old tree; a play on darkness, shadows and light.

Hand built using a single slab of black stoneware clay, lightened with thinly-poured coatings of Frost porcelain. Yellow slip applied with a flick of the wrist, then sgrafitto<d to suggest waving leaves.

I submitted only one of these to the OGP 2023 Annual Exhibition, because the one on the right had a fault, and the submission deadline was up. A little sanding, a touch of slip, and into the kiln it went for a second cone 6 firing. All went well. From now on, this pair will stay together.

Height: 30 cm; Diameter at base: 8 cm.

Spring Glade – Set of three vases

Accepted into the Ottawa Guild of Potters Annual Exhibition 2023 May 5 – 7), juried by Angelo di Petta. Sold.

See the Exhibition Catalogue at: https://ottawaguildofpotters.ca/annual-juried-exhibition/

Streams of slips create a weathered, bark-like surface, while poured glaze reflects regrowth, through moss dappled green and grey in the sun.

Slips and glaze trailed and poured. Hand built using a single slab of stoneware clay. Fired to cone 6, in oxidation

Height: 27 – 30 cm, Width at base: 8.5 to 9 cm / Weight 664 – 785 g

At The Pond

Reeds waving in the breeze, and leaves floating on the water, all bathed in sunlight.

Wheel-thrown, using reclaim clay at Olaria Mealha, Lagos, Portugal. Only having time to bisque it there, I glazed it once back home in Ottawa. The streams of glaze create an attractive flashing just where they edge onto the bare clay. Did the gas kiln bisque firing in Lagos create that strong effect? Was it iron in the reclaim clay itself? All I know is that I haven’t, so far, been able to repeat it — and doubt whether I ever will. Oh well. I like it.

Wheel thrown. Stoneware; glaze fired to cone 6, in oxidation.

Height: 17 cm, Width: 10 cm

Two vases: Leaves, soil and Sun, 3 and 4

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.

Moss on 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