Liana

Pair: Height: 30 cm; diameter at base: 9 cm

Creepers, reaching to the light.

Stoneware; black clay, fired in oxidation to cone 6

The black clay, which once fired, turns brown. Here the raw clay is coated with sponged on black underglaze to achieve a darker colour. Yellow slip is then squirted with a thick swoosh onto the still raw surface. Once bisque fired, other glazes are applied using either a slip trailer or a brush.

Ironwood bark

Slab-built, with white stoneware clay; textured, cut away at rim.

Twice fired to cone 6. For the first firing, I poured a shino glaze to cover the entire piece. For the second firing, I first made adjustments to the amount of glaze on the ridges, then added a matte, dark glaze into the crevasses, enhancing the contrast between the thicknesses of the bark).

Stoneware, fired to cone 6, in oxidation. Height: 30 cm; width at base: 10 cm

Sign of Spring

Slab-built, using white stoneware clay, then coated with a porcelaneous slip, turning the surface into a white canvas for my design.

A tree emerges from the long, dark winter, to bloom with the first hints of spring. I throw, blow, squirt and drip glaze and oxides onto the lightly-damp surface. A small amount of transparent glaze, blown onto the bright yellow heaps of of yellow stain held it solidly in place during the firing.

Fired to cone 6, in oxidation.

Swirling depths

Slab-built, with a dark black clay, finished on the wheel; the rim cut away to firm waves.

To provide a variety of dark black tones, darker than the grey that the black clay would become once fired, I dipped a small, rough sponge in black underglaze, and swept it up the length of the vase, several times. I wanted to create a sense of moving waters, and swirling vegetation in the depths. The first step was pouring a thin layer of a matte, olive-grey glaze, from the top, and down, holding the cylinder at a sharp angle. This glaze, when applied thin over the dark surface, turns ashen, a lovely surface over which to squirt streams of yellow slip, tinged with rutile, sunlight reflecting off the swirling kelp. A few quick strokes of black, high-grit glaze applied with a hard-bristled brush, further break up the surface.

Stoneware, fired to cone 6, in oxidation.

Paired cylinders: Bark

So many possibilities, as I plan my cylinders. Shall I use porcelain, or black clay? Shall I create a highly-textured surface? Shall I forcefully distort the surface? Shall I use slips? Squirt the slips, adding grit, frit, sand, rust? Shall I throw the slip on, pour it on, blow it on? Make it so thick that it cracks in the firing? When, while the slip is still damp? Or wait till tomorrow? Slab built, then finished on the wheel.

For the pieces shown below, I shaped them using slabs of white clay, keeping the neck wide enough for my hand to reach down inside, allowing me to finish them off on the wheel. Did I use porcelain? No. But to enhance its whiteness, I coated the leather-hard piece in a porcelaneous slip (Frost). Did I create a highly-textured surface? No. But using a hard-bristle, broad paint brush, I roughed the surface by adding heavy grit to the dark glaze. Once bisque fired, I applied a few quick free-hand squirts of a yellow/orange slip. Finally, using an atomiser, I applied a fine layer of a glossy, transparent glaze over the remaining white surfaces.

Stoneware, fired to cone 6, in oxidation. Height: 31 cm; Dia. at base: 8.5 cm.

Bark vase: shino and crawl

Some of us at ClayWorks have been experimenting with Falls Creek Shino, which works quite nicely in oxidation to cone 6 (depending of course on application thickness, specific gravity, clay used, and all the other parameters that come into play). Initial tests were promising, so I used it on this piece. The result was good, but I hadn’t really thought about this shino actually giving quite a glossy finish, something I didn’t want for these pieces. I hid it away for a while, and wondered.

What about pouring another, more matte glaze over the entire piece, and hope the cylinder survives a second glaze firing? Given the ruggedness of the vessel, I wondered whether a crawl would do the trick.

Whether it still looks like bark, I don’t know. But the satin white glaze has broken up beautifully as it slipped into the crevasses of this shino-glazed cylinder.

Hand-built, stoneware slab, moulded against bark.

Fired to Cone 6, in oxidation.

Ht: 31 cm; dia. at base: 8 cm

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?