Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Why not.... What if....

 When I make the effort, I can actually throw a nice bowl. I have had some pretty great teachers, after all, and they can all throw a nice bowl. I was cleaning out the cabinets, trying to find some pottery Wesley could take with her to school and started looking at some of the bowls I have made and kept. This are some quick and dirty shots, pretty bad actually, my camera did not go to depth of field school,but you get the idea. These two bowls were tests two years ago during my love affair with red earthenware. I'm really digging these bowls today. The first one is a sweet bowl, no glaze on the outside and a cobalt glaze over white slip that I was testing. Most of the pieces in the firing killed themselves but this was a survivor and I am considering testing this again. Why not?

 This is also a really great bowl. It's very well crafted, if I do say so :) and the glaze is amazing. It's close to the glaze that is on the Mark Hewitt cup I posted last week on the inside. Again red earthenware. The glaze is one that I found online that said "mimics old English amber glaze". You have probably seen this recipe if you have ever googled amber yellow earthenware glaze. The claim is a lie, it does not mimc anything of the sort, but it's very pretty. The outside of the bowl is the amber on the red earthenware.
The inside turned this crazy wonderful blue green. It's the amber over white slip. See what I mean? Do you see any amber yellow there? Bet you I could never again duplicate this, but
What if?.....
If I could get these glazes to work consistently in my kiln, I would make functional pottery.
 Fark, I bought all those underglazes!  and I am committed to my white clay....
But red earthenware...... sigh.......
Clay is mentioned so much in the Bible, but I swear it's from the devil, sent here to drive us mad!!!

12 comments:

cookingwithgas said...

mad, I tell you, mad!
And we love to say why not around here- just make what you want.

Tracey Broome said...

I love to say why not too! My mom says that why was the first word I learned :)

Dennis Allen said...

Why not indeed. June Perry was calling the stuff the Red Menace last week. It is strangely addictive or maybe it's just that I don't want to clean the studio well enough to go back to the white stuff.

Tracey Broome said...

Dennis, I'm thinking red clay on the wheel and white clay for hand building. I can keep it separate that way... But June is right, it can be a menace!

Susan Wells said...

Oh yeah you know all that devil stuff is just a way to have DOMINION. We are clear though that earth is Wonderment! Otherwise, we'd be pushing papers at a bank! NOT.

Laura Farrow said...

my crystal ball says September is a good month for experimenting.. and so is August!! xo

Patricia Griffin Ceramics said...

The bowls are beauties... Hey, my camera didnt go to school either. We gotta make them tow the line and study!

Hollis Engley said...

Funny how you can go back to something you've forgotten about and discover something new.

Amy said...

Thanks for your emails... hey, hope you go for whatever you want to- whether it's making bowls or whatever. Those bowls are gorgeous!

Lori Buff said...

Yes, those of us that work in clay understand this, there is so much to playing to do it's really hard to stick to one thing for too long.

Quietly Otaku said...

Love the vibrant cobalt blue so pretty! Sometimes theres something fascinating in pieces that don't quite work out

Shannon said...

I love the close-up shots of the bowls. It's the way I actually see them and experience them when I look at them --with very BIG eyes.