OUT OF MY GOURD

Everyone is quick these days to use the phrase; "you need to think outside the box", but from my perspective, every time I start a new cycle, it is just as important to think inside the box. In this case, the box is the space and volume of the kiln and how do I fill it to maximize its potential. Obviously, it is important to first plan out any orders or commissions, next comes the fill in the blank portion of planning a kiln load. In this cycle, I threw a group of large covered jars where they are widest at about the top 1/3 of the form, so I planned out a group of vases that would be at their widest at the bottom 1/3 of the pot to fit a vase between each pair of jars.

This particular time I decided to throw double gourd form bottles which I had not thrown in quite a while. Illustrated is a picture of four of the bottle/vases, the tallest just under 14", the two with hakeme slip will be glazed in the iron yellow saffron glaze and the other two will be glazed in my temmoku and iron red glazes. The one plain white slipped bottle was simply about giving me some flexibility in decoration and glazing, even though I am likely to use the temmoku/iron red combo none the less. Good to keep your options open when thinking inside of the box while being a bit out of my gourd as another week commences full tilt.