Thursday, September 24, 2009

New Shino teabowls from the Aug. 23 firing






I seem to be fixated on teabowls lately. That will not come as a surprise to anyone who has looked at this blog in the past few weeks. This firing was no different, with a dozen or more teabowls on the bottom shelf, most of them glazed in layered Shino glazes and sifted wood ash. There were bowls and vases in the firing, too, but right now the teabowls are my focus.
Something seems to happen to both of the Shino glazes I'm using when they are combined on the Miller brown stoneware clay body that I use. The Malcolm Davis carbon-trap Shino takes on a sheen it usually doesn't have on its own, and the so-called Bright Shino usually goes white against the sheen. My runny ash celadon on some of them adds another layer, as does the wood ash shaken randomly across the surface.
There is a random landscape that is created with these combinations that is never intentional. I don't know which side will trap carbon. nor where the second Shino will go white. Glazing for this firing, the Bright Shino bucket was down to a few ounces and I was too lazy to mix up a new batch, so I resorted to dripping from a measuring cup. Spots and runs resulted, rather than great sheets of the whiter overglaze. Some got ash glaze, most did not. Almost all got ash.
There are, also, cups here in Shaner Red with sifted ash that turns the glaze yellow and runs down the side. And a couple of simple temmoku cups that are pretty quiet.
The detail of the glaze alone is from a low pasta bowl that's been marked on the inside by a chattering iron.

10 comments:

klineola said...

Really nice shinos, Hollis! I would take a tea bowl workshop with you any day!

Tracey Broome said...

WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Such beautiful glazes on those wonderful cups, WOW!

Hollis Engley said...

Thanks, guys. Maybe we can trade workshops sometime, Michael. Don't hyperventilate, Tracey. I knew you'd like these pots.

Dan Finnegan said...

Beautiful, rich surfaces, Hollis...I like the middle group of three the best. Of course, you are one of the few people in the world who know what i think of teabowls...one day I'll dare to write about it! What I like about your pots is that you've known what you like for a long time and you're really putting it all together.

Hollis Engley said...

Thanks, Daniel. I'm still considering putting my stamp on the footring. ... heh, heh, heh ...
Got a nice note from Lou. Give her a hug for me.

maria said...

Really nice !!

Anonymous said...

beautiful pieces hollis, beautiful

Ron said...

Great teabowls Hollis!

Hannah said...

I am a shino fan, I wasjust teaching Paul about them this morning from my well thumbed potters dictionary of materials and techniques as he was asking about your bowl here. He is now fully educated in teh magic of neph sy and ball clay.

Hollis Engley said...

Thanks, folks. I carried a box of teabowls around western Mass. and Vermont this weekend, hoping someone on the streets of Brattleboro would ask me if I had any Shino teabowls. Alarmingly, no one did. Guess I shoulda been in Somerset.
Now, onward to make more pots.