Pots and Paintings

Archive for December, 2011

Here are some of the pots from the last firing of the year (22nd December). I used very little rutile in the decoration this time as I felt a bit overwhelmed with the spectrum of colours on the jugs from the previous firing and wanted to learn how to control the colours of rutile better.

Well, in the space of 4 months I’ve got back into throwing pots and have learned a lot from each of the firings I’ve done in my gas kiln. I’ve had a lot of reject pots but also had some pots that I’ve really been pleased with. Thank you to Carisbrooke Priory for providing me with the perfect pottery workshop and a place to display and sell my pottery. Thank you also to all the kind people who have bought my pots and helped to spread the word!
Next year I will start up my drawing and painting again, so will need to manage my time between the art and the pottery. I’ve certainly felt a lot more relaxed since I stopped the design work to pursue the pottery and I’m looking forward to more creativity and greater success and sales in 2012.

Thursday was a glaze firing day which caused me a bit of stress. I saw the temperature climb to just over 1200′C and then the pressure began to drop, and the very thing I was not looking forward to happened…  the gas cylinder needed changing over. In the couple of minutes it took me to change cylinders the temperature dropped back to about 1140′C. To cut my story short I finally got the kiln to 1280′C followed by a 50 minute soak, however neither sets of cones were bending as I had hoped, but as I have to vacate the premises at 4pm I turned off the gas to end the firing and went home feeling somewhat negative about the results of the firing.

The good thing is that the glazes have a wide maturing range from 1260′C to 1280′C. I’d prayed for good results before the firing and…  well I’ll let the photos speak for themselves. The range of colours is quite remarkable, and the use of rutile has produced some stunning autumnal colours! I used the word raving for the title which can mean wild and out of control!

The colours of rutile!

Closeups of two of the jugs.

The slides below show more of the jugs and the amazing range of colours achievable with the same glazes (chun/tenmoku over reactive slip; chun/tenmoku over red taggs yard).

Last week I finished making some narrow necked ginger jars.
It’s a step nearer to throwing bottle forms and something I usually struggle with, but I was pleased with my efforts. Then on Friday my order of glazes arrived…

New brush decoration motifs

… so, much of this week has been taken up with mixing the new glazes then glazing the pots that came out of the last biscuit firing. It took much longer than I thought because I wanted to try out some new brushwork motifs using my favoured combination of rutile and iron oxide, and I was suffering from a cold so didn’t have my usual energy.  I need a lot more practice with my brushwork, and I need to buy some new chinese brushes as well as a new hake brush to replace the one that finally expired this afternoon! Now I can’t wait until next Thursday when I will be doing the first of another run of glaze firings.

At the end of the following slides I’ve posted some comparisons to show examples of glazing before and after being fired.

Before and After