06.05.12

It’s May already, I can’t believe it! Where does the year go? These next 5 weeks are going to be extremely busy, as I’ve got 4 events in 5 weekends. Starting with Pulse 2013 this weekend, then Palace Art Fair, Saltaire Arts Trail and, finally, The Contemporary Craft Festival on the 7th – 9th of June. We’ll have to see how my lower back holds up – it doesn’t like standing in one place for too long and I don’t really like sitting, as it is much harder to engage with visitors.

The fruit bowl that I threw a couple of weeks ago came out of the kiln this week.

This one is about 27 and a half centimetres in diameter. I’m really pleased with it, although, there is a lot to learn in terms of glazing something bigger than I am used to. The inside is an unexpected delight.

(The black lines crossing the bowl are a shadow and not part of the glaze…)

Where the glaze has been applied more thickly, as a result of lying in the hollow of the bowl for longer when I swilled the glaze around to cover the inside of the bowl, it shows this wonderful golden browny, greeny, ochre. This browny green flows across the concave surface showing the path that the glaze took during the glazing process. It is very dynamic and fluid. I love the way the decoration comes directly out of the process of its making.

Having glazed the inside, I then turned the bowl over and set it on a banding/modelling wheel and poured the glaze over the outside as I spun the wheel. As a result, these splendid shapes were created on the edge of the bowl, which, when the bowl is turned the right way up, make for an interesting pattern.

A couple of things, though, to remember for next time. The first is that the biscuit-fired bowl doesn’t absorb the glaze very quickly when it is being poured over the surface (compared to when a pot is submerged in a bucket of glaze). The glaze has, therefore, come out thinly on the outside, so next time I will have to apply two or three coats and layer them up. The other thing is that it is difficult to apply the glaze neatly around the foot-ring when pouring the glaze.

I haven’t used wax around the foot of a pot before to protect it from getting covered in glaze but, for these larger bowls, I shall paint wax over the foot-ring and the first curve of the bowl, which will resist the glaze and provide a nice, neat finish.

I’m going to take this bowl to Pulse and we’ll see if anyone likes it enough to place an order.