Category Archives: Bowls

Soup/rice/small ramen bowl

One of my former clients has fallen for this bowl, and wants to choose a few of them, to be given as a gift. I fired a number of them this morning, this time in a slow downfire kiln, which might make the meld between the various overlaid glazes even more interesting. I don’t think there is much risk. They should turn out as good as this one, or, hopefully, even better.

Here, the satin white glaze, squirted with a slip trailer in a thick stream, breaks nicely over the black; and where the squirt lands on two layers of glaze, the iron red (using 18% red iron oxide) over the black, the white turns to a broken light fawn.

With the various lockdowns of the pandemic, it has taken me a while to re-find the smooth gestures that came so naturally before. How far do I hold the slip trailer from the surface to be glazed? How quick do I make the sweep? I also struggled to find the design I wanted, with the smaller touch of colour near the rim on the inside, reflecting the curves of colour on the outside. But I’ve been in the studio, Clayworks, for sometime now, and am finding my way again…

White stoneware, fired to cone 6, in oxidation. Dia: 13 cm; ht: 8 cm

Monsters of the Deep

A dark glazed bowl, just waiting for colour. Holding the bowl in one hand, I tip it at a slight angle, hold my breath, and sweep the inner curved surface with a squirt of iron red. I wait, don’t move, then again squirt, using a wider nib, and a contrasting white glaze. Then comes the firing to cone 6, in an electric kiln. How much will the lines run, how mottled will be the effect of the white breaking over the dark underlying glaze? And, always, the big question: how red a red will the kiln be kind enough to give me this time?

Drifting, bowl.

See a flaw, and I must make my peace with it. But when opening a glaze kiln and seeing a piece that yes, hold on, just might be fine, then, risking all, turn it over, and I see that all is well, aah, that feels good.

As I have explained in previous blog posts, the trick with these bowls is to have the piece trimmed and finished, and yet still damp enough to withstand the pressure I put on it, as I force the sides inwards and upwards, to create this distorted, wave effect. I cajole it into doing my bidding, while at the same time I must keep the foot from lifting, keeping it flat to the work table. Some bowls rebel on me and start to crack, others pretend to give in, only to settle back into their original shape as they soften in the heat of the kiln. Then some, like this one, let me have my way.

Stoneware. Fired in oxidation, Cone 6. Distorted. Dia: 13″ – 13.5″; ht: 3″ – 3.5″

Gift bowls

Gift bowls for W.G.H. Old Girls

These are bowls I gave to fellow Old Girls during a Wynberg Girls’ High School reunion while I was in Cape Town in early 2020. These were among the pieces I made during the mornings I spent at Lesley Porter’s pottery workshop near Muizemberg.

While visiting potters’ workshops and exhibitions in Cape Town, I had been impressed with the use of local underglazes, and wanted to try them myself. Here I used paintbrushes in applying them to the bisqued surfaces, rather than slip trailers as I usually do when applying glazes.

I wanted each bowl to be distinct, but for them all to form a set, so that each WGH old girl at the reunion would have one which would be paired with the others, and decorated with the same motif. Here each bowl is seen as an individual leaf sprouting from branches of one massive, long-standing tree.

Stoneware, fired in oxidation, to cone 5.

Ebbing Tide

Dimensions:
dia: 30 cm
ht: 7 cm
Stoneware, fired to cone 6, in oxidation.
Glazes are applied through dipping, pouring, and finally squirting, with the aim of achieving lines of glaze combinations which reflect and enhance the shape of the piece itself.  

Setting Sail

Setting Sail 1 and 2: dia 32 -33 cm, ht: 4.5 -6.5 cm.

Won Best Design award, Ottawa Guild of Potters Annual Exhibition 2018

Trimmed while damp, the sides are carefully pushed inwards and upwards to provide the swirling distortion of the rim. The bowl is then dipped in a high-seas colour glaze, with further multiple layers of  glazes either poured or squirted onto the inner surface. A fine spray of iron-rich glaze, applied with an atomiser, provides a darker tone to the raised rims.

Squid

 

This orange-red glaze, with its 14% iron oxide, seems to love slip-sliding down the uneven slopes of this distorted bowl. This close-up shows the wide range of colours produced as this glaze runs through and over the first, deep black glaze. I love how the red turns to  greenish tan at all points where the red pulls away from the black, even around all the black pools where the black has somehow forced its way through to the surface.

The white was simply poured down the length of the bowl, between the squirts of orange-red, as I held it tilted downwards in my hand.  This glaze also breaks up nicely over the black.

Stoneware, thrown. The bowl is distorted by gently, but forcefully squeezing the sides inwards, once the piece has been trimmed, but is still damp.

Fired in oxidation to Cone 6.

Dimensions: di: 24/23 cm; ht: 5.5 cm/7 cm

Pebblestones

Another open, v-shaped bowl, with  the orange-red trails speckling nicely over the iron-rich base glaze. Small,  14 cm diameter. I’ll see how this glaze flows over a rounded-shaped vase next, and then, hopefully, over a large, open dish. The cone 6 firing was a little hotter this time. I’ll have to see whether this result becomes regularly repeatable…