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