Japanese Style Tea Cups!

These are series of small Japanese Tea Cups. I produced 10 and glazed them in unique pairs. These are being shipped to Japan as a thank you gift for my Japanese makers stamp.

Color!

I seem to have been vary focused on simple color for a long time. Maybe two colors alternating from inside and out. Over the past weeks I have experimented with a using multiple glazes in combination and found an exciting combintion of 5 different glazes!

The square bowl above is glazed on the interior with this mix of glazes and my new blue green glaze on the exterior. This bowl is handbuilt with a stamped brocade texture on the outside. The square foot ring is also a new development at Northstar Pottery. The piece is porcelian and fired to Cone 6. 8" x 8" x 1.75"

The plate above is done in the same fashion as the bowl. 8.25" x 1", wheel thrown. Fired to Cone 6.

Plates Squared

I worked on improving my square plates this weekend from overall shape to the foot ring. I started by making several new wooden molds for a 10", 8" and 6" plate. The pictures here are of the 8" (plate with texture) and a bottom view of the 12". I have not worried too much about a foot ring on this shape of plate in the past, mostly because I had no experience building this detail. This weekend however, was focused on how to add a square foot ring on to these handbuilt plates. Not only to built the ring but to be able to repeat it with some consistancy. The material for the ring was extruded through a square die. I also made a square woodend die to sit atop the newly built plate while it was drying on the mold. With the foot ring die in place I wrapped the extruded length of square clay around the die. Once wrapped and trimmed to length I worked on securing it and filling edges to the surface of the plate with a very light slip that was brushed on. It's fun experimenting with what works and what doesn't work too well. I just want to see a little more of the what works well part more often. :-)

Handbuilt Greenware Textured Dishes

Worked on producing multiple handbuilt square plates today in the studio. These are made with white porcilen clay and a rolled rope texture. The first time I've tried using rope and I found it easy and delievered a nice subtle overall texture. I'm still devloping my makers mark and as you can see from the bottom of these dishes I can't make up my mind. My current thought is to keep the Japanese stamp of course and the n*s or perhaps just the *. I am also thinking of using a 3rd symbol that would change month to month or year to year. Too much?

Brocade Retro

A set of four small square dishes from my last firing were another study on how to use a stamped texture. I thought by only stamping roughly half the dish that the piece would go modern in design. As it turned out, I think I got more a retro result. What are your thoughts?

A New Mark

I worked with using porcelain yesterday for the first time in a few years. It was fun to work with again. Such a creamy smooth texture verses the stiffer earthenware. My first pieces were 9 small Japanese inspired tea cups with an embossed "Chrysanthemum". Of note also is the detail added to the bottom of the cup. My "NEW" makers mark. It is the Japanese characters for my name, "Mark". So cool.

New Glaze Experiments

I've been trying to produce a nice bright white on a buff earthenware body for sometime. I think I finally have something. Above are two that both turned out extremely well. They both appear very similar, except the upper most left test tile is much more glossy than the test tile bottom right.

Out of my recent firing I also achieved good results with a tan, blue and green. The matt blue test tile bottom middle is not food safe.

Do you have a favorite?