Friday, September 28, 2012

New pots from Thursday's firing

It's always startling for me to see Kim Medeiros's pots in my kiln, next to the rough, cut teabowls I've been making the past several months. Kim, who owns The Barn Pottery in Pocasset, spends a lot of time on slip-trailing, sgraffito and very particular glazing of her pots. It shows in her work's color and precision, whereas I dip and pour and spatter on my pots. And she loves those jewel colors, which are so not carbon-trap Shino and ash. So when I open the kiln after firing, as I did this morning, there's always a contrast between her work and mine, as you can see in the top photos. I love that.
She was happy with her pots this morning, and I was happy with most of mine. I've still got problems to work out. More about that in another post, I guess.
Meanwhile, another dozen or so big teabowls came out of this firing, layered in Shinos, ash celadon, copper red and Oribe. The faceting of the pots early in the throwing process, then the pushing out of the bowl shape torques the walls, thins them, sometimes breaks them mid-wall or at the rim. I patch these pots and get on with it. They're going to remain rough and imprecise right through the glaze firing, so I'm not concerned with symmetry or exactitude. Good thing.
There were also, as you can see, some simple squared vases with added lugs, glazed more or less as I glaze the teabowls.









6 comments:

Pam said...

Sweet teabowls! Beautiful!

cookingwithgas said...

exactitude-the quality or an instance of being exact
symmetry and exactitude are over rated....
Love the words.
Humm no blue.
I had a conversation with Dennis over a glaze that looked blue on my computer but in reality is green.
I guess my computer likes blue.

Love the contrast in work and the pushing of the limits on the
tea bowls.

Tracey Broome said...

It's not blue?
Love the last photo of that teabowl. They are a thing of joy to drink from!!!

Hollis Engley said...

Thanks, guys. No, the glaze is an Oribe, which is more green than blue. But I can see how it might be mistaken, since it sometimes is as much aqua as green. I tend to see what I intend, rather than what is actually there.

Quietly Otaku said...

Beautiful glaze work, the mingling of colours is lovely

Unknown said...

Wow, I've been unable to keep up with my blog reading for the past few weeks...so glad I did not miss these beauties!! Just stunning~ I agree with Tracey, drooling over that last one :)