Post 102 Another firing

My Chinese copy pot came through really well, glazed with a glossy blue glaze. I slab built this one with clay that I'd rolled flat and then only moved the slabs by flipping rather than peeling them off a surface. I allowed them to air dry and go cheddar cheese hard before making the pot.  So in the end it felt more like I was making it out of pieces of ply than sheets of clay. Getting the joints right is the trick when the clay is so dry and for me that means abrading the surface, applying the slip and then rubbing the surfaces together to weld them together, forcing the slip out of the joint.
  

 Final dimensions of the pot are 216mm square at the top and 213mm high. I made this to fit a 200mm black plastic pot for either orchids in flower or an indoor plant, for my wife, so can't see it getting a cascade bonsi put in it in this lilfetime.

 The next one is a very contemporary design for a bonsai pot.

 This is the front.  The pot is a small one about 160mm x 125mm x 60mm

 And this from the left hand side.

The pot is made with upper and lower 3D curved surfaces joined around the edges. The upper and lower surfaces meet at the drainage hole. The concept is to create a surface that is like a thick curved slab with the tree planted on a mound resting on, rather than in the pot, something like the picture below.

It is quite a departure in design but I'm pleased with the outcome and will no doubt now go on and make a larger one.

 The next couple of pots were experiments in being a little less fastidious in the build than I would normally be. The approach was to build the base and thick vertical walls first then cut the walls with an old bandsaw blade to finish with a little shaping of the wall profile. The only thing templated is the oval base and after that the faster build provides some nice irregularity and asymmetry.
The break of the glaze on this one from cream to red brown goes really well with the texture. This one is another shohin at 190mm x 155mm x 53mm.

This last one was made the same way with a different profile and darker glaze. Pot size is 168mm x 130mm x 47mm.

I liked the outcome and made three more yesterday using the last of the 'Toast' clay that I was trialling.  There were a couple more pots in the last firing and they'll be on the next post.