Monthly Archives: December 2017

Shoreline

I’ve been making distorted bowls for some years now; what varies is the size, the degree of distortion, and of course the glazes I use. I started making them after my first ikebana teacher, at her home in the outskirts of Brussels, showed me a cupboard where she kept her favourite vases. These Japanese vases she took out were all lovely, but I was particularly struck by a wide bowl with its sides seemingly distorted inwards and upwards, creating a lovely wave-like effect.

What I aim for is a bowl you’d want to hold lightly in the hand, twisting it round and to catch sight inside of the coloured trails of glaze drawing your eye to the wave-like rim.

Making them myself revealed a number of challlenges. Pushing the walls of a bowl inwards after it has been trimmed is tricky: the rims at the two narrower ends are inclined to crack, as is the part near the angle at the foot, if it is trimmed thin. Under the pressure of the hands, the sides of the base may also lift, so the bowl no longer stands flat on its trimmed foot. And the squirts of glaze don’t always create the pleasing line I want.

Those problems I have learned to cope with. But in the case here of the two larger bowls, which I distorted, they show little sign of it after firing. I can only think that my recent efforts at making lighter pieces, with thinner, more carefully worked walls, has meant that the walls give in more easily to clay memory (the tendency of clay to return to its earlier, unfired, shape), and to gravity, during firing.

 

Dimensions:

dia: 21/22 cm, ht: 5.5 cm;
dia; 18.5/19.5 cm, ht 5 cm;
dia: 11 cm, ht: 5.5 cm
dia: 9.5 cm, ht 4 cm

Porcelaneous stoneware, fired to cone 6, in oxidation.

 

Three pharmacy jars

This is a return for me to work started in Brussels two years ago, using the striking, age-old combination of cobalt oxide on pure white clay. Perhaps influenced by the 17C Delft tiles and the Portuguese azulejos I am familiar with, I have tried to use the same colours to create a light, modern, impressionistic design.

The first challenge was to throw the cylinders as thinly as I could, as the effect of the design is lost if the piece, once finished, feels heavy in the hand. The second challenge was to design appropriate thrown lids that fit well. In this second set of jars, I made the cylinders narrower, improving the relationship between their height and width. Also, I realized the lines here must be straight, and that the top diameter of the cylinder must be the same, or smaller, than that of the base. Finally, the clay surface must be as smooth as possible, with all distracting trimming lines removed.

Once bisque fired, I carefully apply seemingly haphazard smudges to the bisque-fired surface, while making sure no fingerprints inadvertently stain the white surface Then I complete the design by painting the final lines using varying intensities of the diluted cobalt wash. I then quickly pour a transparent glaze over the inside surface, and out again. Finally, I lightly spray the outside using an atomiser. I keep the glaze quite thick, to get a slightly pebbled texture to the outer surface.

Dimensions:
ht 19 cm, dia 6.5 cm;
ht 14 cm, dia 6 cm;
ht 12 cm, dia 5 cm
Clay: Frost, cone 6 porcelain fired to cone 6, in oxidation.
Cobalt oxide (with Gerstley borate) applied to bisqueware, front and back.

Reverse view, below:

Populace Vases – Populace at Home Exhibition at Dust Evans Gallery, Shenkman Centre

The Ottawa Guild of Potters’ Populace sculpture garden at the Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa (celebrating Canada’s 150th year) has now been taken down, and the roses, fleur de lis and feathers have been on show at the Dust Evans Gallery, Shenkman Centre. A number of us made vases used to display the sculptures. Below: these are my contribution to the continuing Populace story. A light dusting of glaze gives the surface a pebbled effect.

Featured image:

Stoneware, thrown. Ht:  10.6, 9.1, 8.7, and 10 inches. Base dia: 3.3

Optional perforated lids nestle inside the distorted rim

Below:

Stoneware, thrown. Ht: 10.8, 10.4, 9.2; dia at base: 3.5 inches

Two bowls: Currents

In creating these two small bowls, my intention was to have the viewer want to not only look at them, but to reach out, hold them, and ponder. Their weight needs to be feel balanced and just right, the texture needs to be glossy and smooth; the trails of colour, with their balance between careful application and chance disposition, should invite the viewer to come up with a pleasing interpretation.

To enhance the smoothness and brightness of the clay surface, I dip the piece in a Frost slip (cone 6 porcelain), which has much finer clay particles than the stoneware. The glazes I choose are ones that break attractively, providing a speckled effect as they run down to the centre over the iron-rich base glaze.

The original stimulus for working in this style came from a Svend Bayer exhibition at the Greenwich Pottery, New York. Though he is particularly well know for large, wood-fired pots, I especially liked the bowls he decorated with trails of glaze of different intensities.

Currents 1: dia: 16.5 cm; width: 4.5 cm. Thrown: stoneware, fired to Cone 6, oxidation