Latest landscape pot

Finally, my landscape pots are getting somewhere. I lay the pot on its back and poured four glazes over the top, the first a mauve colour followed by three of my green tests allowing the glazes to flow around the body. It was fired at 1210 held above the kiln shelf by a series of ceramic wads. The glaze effects are surprising but not as much as the change in the physical nature of the pot. It almost slumped in this position and shrank unbelievably - as you can see in the comparison photo.


The glazed pot was originally the same size as the one on the right!

New and refired pots

This pot was made in May this year, fired twice with disappointing results. Last week I decided to reglaze it again using my ASMI turquoise glaze and the result below is nothing like I imagined but it is quite lovely and reminds me of the colours in Monet's water lilly series.

I picked some rhodo blossoms from the Ceramics courtyard and they brighten up the studio no end.

Another jug - but fired at 1215 degrees so pushing the Cone 6 glaze (ochre) to the max.

Morning skies over Mt Cargill

The photos in this video were taken on Sunday mornings at 30 minutes after sunrise between April and August 2009. This is approximately the period when daylight saving ended and begins again. This will be part of my final year BVA presentation. The 'Scherzo' excerpt movement from Beethoven's No.9 was in my default music library and fitted my images. Not the music I had in mind which was more akin to 'Winter' Vivaldi's Four Seasons etc but I then recalled this same scherzo from A Clockwork Orange and thought, if it was good enough for Stanley Kubrick, it is good enough for me!!! And besides, musically I think it fits.

more pots

This is another experiment in the 'green' range. My intention was to install 6 or 8 pots in various greens as part of my final exhibition for SITE. However, now that I am building the 7th & 8th pots in this way, and four of these vessels are 70cm high, I feel I am no longer enjoying making them. Recently I thought I would only make 4 tall pots and glaze them in the colours of the four seasons instead of the 'green' installation because I thought the glaze effects would be more challenging. Scott, my tutor from Sculpture, said I should do both!


I like these 'white' pots very much. They are made from Abbots white clay with the addition of earthenware clay in parts. This causes a frozen movement in the shape of the pot as the clays shrink at different rates when being fired.

Mistakes!

These pots were also overfired and as a consequence, the glazes have become glossy and flattened while the stains-in-slip bands have become more intense. In addition the red earthenware clay has become more khaki. They are not what I expected and while they offer something else, and are also on public display at Quadrant, I suspect I may end up re-firing them.

Latest pots

I refired these as the first firing went beyond Cone 6 and flattened the colours. I added some orange stain in slip as an accent and applied a matt white glaze over the top of the previously white stripes and I am happy with the result.

This pair of jugs have fired beautifully. The olive colour is most unusual and I will use this glaze on one of my large vessels which are part of the 'green' range.

New landscape vessels

I intended to make a replica of "small turquoise jug" and used exactly the same glaze but this one has come out more green than turquoise - the vagaries of different firings.

This pot continues my experimental smaller landscape vessels range.

This pair of vessels are quite interesting - sombre, wintery and yet with glints of gold and the suggestion of a blue skyline - very Central Otago I think.