Dragon Platter Progress

Moving along.

Dragon Platter #1

A dragon in high bas relief on a 22" platter form. The clay body is one formulated primarily for raku, heavy with grog, but I'll fire it to cone 6. (For those unfamiliar with the cone designation, it's a term describing the working temperature of the kiln firing. The stoneware and porcelain pottery I produce is fired to a hotter cone 10, whereas the cooler bisque firing  prior to glazing is cone 06.)

Here's the platter form itself on the wheel, using a bit more than 25 pounds.

The rough dragon blocked in...

More progress on the dragon. I've broken up the rim with some ornamental flourishes to give an otherwise boring, circular rim some interest in strategic places to balance out the whole composition.

After the block in, the whole sculpting process is one of simply developing and refining the forms and detail. That's the part that takes the most time, depending on how refined and detailed I choose to make the piece.

I'll post more progress soon.

Shino Pie Plate

I love this shino-glazed pie plate from the last kiln firing. Shino glazes have a rich history in pottery and this example incorporates almost every characteristic of a shino that I most admire. The darker brown glaze on top of the shino is a temmoku glaze, which has also played an extremely strong role in the history of pottery.

Latest Firing

These pots are all from the most recent glaze firing, mostly porcelain.

Small baking dishes...

My favorite mug out of this kiln load...

Another mug...

And another. My glaze selection and application methods allow for such variation that each piece - though created with the same materials - is unique. In the throwing phase, I have such a strong tendency to control the clay medium. In order to counteract that control, I incorporate glazes that allow other forces to react within the kiln, so each piece is a surprise.

Tumblers...

A teabowl with pumpkin matt and temmoku glazes...

New Raku

Freshly fired. Some of the first raku pieces I've done in a long darn time. Look for much more to come. Raku is a most spontaneous and immediate firing technique. The piece is fired to approximately 1800 degrees F, then placed in a sealed container with combustibles. The process of burning requires oxygen, therefore, since the chamber is sealed, the fire extracts the oxygen from the metal oxides we use to give color to glazes, changing their colors. One of the things I most enjoy about pottery and ceramics in general, besides aesthetics, is the chemistry.

Green raku vase -

Here it is sitting on the kiln shelf, cooling down a little bit before I pick it up with tongs and place it in a container full of old newspaper for a post-firing reduction atmosphere, mostly to help darken the crackles that occur in this glaze.

A lidded jar with a white crackle glaze. The black/gray part is bare clay that's been impregnated with carbon from the smoke in the reduction chamber. The slight bit of color around the base and top of the knob comes from a copper glaze/patina  mixture.

Here's the jar in the earlier wet clay stage -

New Pots from the Kiln, 01/05/13

Here's a selection of glazed porcelain pieces from the latest kiln firing.

Some of my favorites, handled bowls:

A few of the goblets...

An altered bowl...

An altered baking dish with handles...

Tools and Toolmaking

I'm an advocate of not only using some of the simplest of tools for sculpting, but also making them. These are fabricated out of hedge or "osage orange" as it's more commonly known. This photo illustrates the 1/4" thick wood blanks I start with for these particular shapes, though you can see I've drawn some others on the blanks. The bottom two tools are finished and ready to work with.

These are shapes that I find the most versatile.

A page of tool sketches I have made or will be making for use in my sculpting or pottery production:

The possibilities are seemingly endless, depending on the task or application for which the tool is intended.

The long throwing rib above is approximately 9" in length. The dark tools are made of East Indian rosewood - scraps from my guitar fretboards.

More Ghosts

Perched atop their lidded vessels, drying in preparation of bisque firing.