Friday, February 19, 2010

Flying over the Shino landscape






This big (maybe a foot tall), two-part vase came out of the firing late last week, glazed in layered Shinos that made it look a bit like the landscape of an alien planet. In the past six months or so I have been pouring Shino over Shino on many of my pots. Usually the base is a carbon-trap Shino attributed to Malcolm Davis, then a Bright Shino is poured over, then perhaps my regular ash celadon glaze. No order, not much forethought. Where the glazes overlap, they usually crawl unpredictably. Sometimes I'll pour ash glaze over the crackling Shinos as a way of blanketing them and keeping them from wildly crawling off the pot. The ash fills the gaps in the crawling and crackling Shinos and sometimes pools in the centers of the individual crackles. ... If any of that makes sense.
These glazes in this firing were newly mixed. I know that some pottery teachers and texts say we should always test our new batches before trusting them to our pots, but ... well ... I don't. I don't necessarily want the new bucket of glaze to look exactly like the last bucket. Consistent inconsistency is what I'm looking for, at least with these combinations.
The two detail photos at bottom are from two smaller vases in the same firing.

13 comments:

cindy shake said...

Beautiful movement. What a wonderful way to approach your glazes! I'm subscribing to your methods -a lot less stressful :o)

Hollis Engley said...

Thanks, Cindy. You're right. Much less stressful.

Otto Wenger said...

I love that pot Hollis...It's got Fire and Earth and reckless abandonment written all over it! That is one beautiful pot!

mudheartpottery said...

Love this pot - I'm glad I am not the only one who doesn't test glazes before use. My simple shino is one of my favourite glazes - perfect reflection of my environment and your pot speaks to me in the same way.

Dan Finnegan said...

That is one powerful pot, Horace. I love the carbon trapping at th top. It's a keeper!

ang design said...

ooooh lovely..

Tracey Broome said...

Isn't that just amazing? If I had that come out of a kiln I would sit with it in my lap for hours and look at all the things the glaze did! Really magical! I'm going with the no glaze approach right now. Terra sig and smoke ha!

Hollis Engley said...

It was a good firing for the crawling and crackling Shinos. Thanks, all. Take a look at some of Lyn's Shinos at Mudheartpottery. Pretty cool stuff there, too.

Anonymous said...

hi hollis... that is one beautiful piece!

Amy said...

shinos are so rich. gorgeous!

Trish said...

Absolutely beautiful!

janet said...

Wonderful photos - they make me shiver

janet said...

I'm so glad you posted these rich photos - they make me shiver