Soda Firing November 2010

I didn't put many pieces in this recent soda firing, but I took the opportunity to experiment a little with texture and some different glaze techniques. At right, there are two stoneware tea bowls that I sprayed with a mixture of wood ash and whiting (about 5 parts to 1). I was trying to emulate the look of a real wood-fired piece, and I came fairly close.

The two tea cups feature carvings. The lower one is straight stoneware, whereas the upper one was dipped in a white crackle slip before being incised. I'm pretty happy with both.

You can see more on my Flickr page.

Blue Aerni Ash

Sometimes, it pays to follow directions. I fell in love with this glaze, a variation on Richard Aerni's recipe from John Britt's The Complete Guide to High Fire Glazes. My first few experiments with the glaze were successful, but lacked visual interest that's the hallmark of wood ash glazes. Then I read Richard's website, where he describes his glazing process. Because he single-fires, he sprays his glazes. And he gets such depth by applying alternating layers of glaze and slip. So I tried it his way on this mug, and voilà!

Blue Wave Sushi Tray

This is one of my rare experiments with slab built pottery. I really enjoyed making these, though, and need to make time to do more and improve upon the design.

This design for a sushi tray came to me out of nowhere, and admittedly was more difficult to achieve than I expected. The teardrop shaped end was difficult to bend without cracking the clay, and I'm not entirely happy with the curve I achieved.

The glaze is wonderful, though. I saw an example in John Britt's book, The Complete Guide to High-Fire Glazes and upon mentioning it to Junji, I found a batch mixed and ready for use the next time I came to the studio. The recipe is based on Richard Aerni's wood ash, and contains added colorants such as cobalt, iron and manganese.

Interestingly, while the form mostly makes me think of an ocean wave, it also bears a resemblance to my new computer's keyboard.

Decal Mugs - Round One Results

I recently posted about my foray into the world of decal firing. Well, the results are in, and my efforts were met with both success and failure. One huge factor was that I used soda-fired pottery, which inherently produces various and hard-to-predict results. So some of the items cracked, warped or bubbled along the way.

The most successful pieces were the simple forms made with plain old stoneware and glazed with our most reliable white glaze. Shown at right is an example of one such piece, perhaps the best of the bunch. My favorite, however, was a lucky combination of Junji's white slip with clear wood ash glaze. It featured an image of Major Taylor. I gave it to MBC's new VP of Operations, Paulo Nzambi.