Wednesday 15 May 2013

Post 96 Some new large pots

In my last post I had a pot with a pretty agressive rocky texture which appealed to more people than I thought it might.

Today I have another pot in a rustic style, this one, Pot 64, in a round semi cascade pot 262mm in diameter and 94mm high. The clay body has been heavily grogged with more impressed into the surface and then glazed with a good reddy brown satin. This glaze relies on Red Iron Oxide for the red tone and a little brown from Chrome and Zinc. I think the zinc supercharges the impact of the RIO too.


While on semi cascades here is another, Pot 61.


This one is a pretty sizable square, bowed wall pot coming in at 330mm side and 165mm high. Is it glazed or is that a fired unglazed surface? No it's glazed, including the feet using the same crystalline brown I used on an earlier Sabani pot no 47. It has some interesting breaking tones and is intended for a mature big trunked semi cascade Juniper; should be a good match.


Now when you look at a picture you just never know how big a pot is. This pot, No 62 is a bowed wall rectangular pot that is about 520mm long in a mottled subdued blue glaze. I think some time ago I posted pictures of this pot and the next one when freshly made.



In this one, oval Pot 63, I've put in some glasses in the shot so you can get a better feel for the size of about 540mm long. Pots this size are the limit of what I can fit into my kiln. Even if I had a bigger kiln I don't quite know how I'd manage to move a bigger pot around.

The process of making these pots necessitates turning them over a few times and this size is definitely the limit of what I can turn on my own. Particularly when the clay is still mobile the turning carries a lot of risk. The technique I use is a bit like that applied to making skiing turn - the old 'up-unweigh' technique - where you get just enough vertical momentum to turn while minimising the impact of gravity.
So with a flat boards sandwiching the pot you kind of throw it upwards with one hand, rotate at the top of the throw and then catch with the other. Strong one handed dominance doesn't help!


Here's the detail of the glaze, a deep ocean copper/cobalt blue/green with a little rutile speckle for visual interest.

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