One of the benefits of making so many mugs is the having the opportunity to slip and decorate a lot of work in a brief time. Throwing the second 50 mugs was a breeze...combing the second 50 was just the same... confidence grows and everything happens with a surer hand. That's one of the great pleasures of repeating forms... mind and hand really get in synch, although, the truth is, the less my mind is involved the better the result. There are almost 100 decoration variations on a couple of themes here. I resist repeating precisely, but like the comfort of exploring the familiar, adapting to different shapes and sizes.
All of this combing started with white slip over red clay hundreds of years ago. One of Ray Finch's contributions to the pottery world was converting Winchcombe from earthenware to stoneware and adapting the decoration techniques from one to the other. Mostly he uses iron slips with celedon/ash glazes on top. I'm using a kaolin slip mixture these days and letting the salt do the the glazing. Check out Michael Kline's blog this evening. He has a mug quiz and I'm one of the answers! (That's a big hint!)
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| Slip with drip. |
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| I add the liner glaze shortly after the handles...everything rehydrates and equalizes. Handles don't crack that way. |
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| Racked and ready. |
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| A tableful. |
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| aerial view |
7 comments:
They look wonderful :-)
that is mug mecca going on at your place! I bet you will be making many people happy with the choices!
Fantastic! Please show a photo after they are fired.
ok, do you have a trick to keep the slip from getting on the liner glaze?
Fantastic work I bet it feels like a real achievement to see them all lined up like that!
Doesn't it feel great when you get a good batch of work made like that. Very satisfying.
They look great.
wow now that's a cool tableful of super variety..
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