A NEW ORIBE

I fired off the kiln last Friday with a group of pots glazed up in my newest Oribe glaze. Along with the Oribe pieces were a number of iron red and temmoku pots and a few other combinations. The firing went well, with a single mishap from a too runny pot, but when you work with runny glazes, it is bound to happen and why most pots are wadded and fired on either pieces of old broken shelf or on soft brick pieces. The Oribe glaze worked rather well and was a step up from the few teabowls and small jars that have been glazed to date. I fired a few vases and jars that were between 13" and 16" tall and having a glaze that is not dependant on lepidolite makes that scale much easier to glaze. I think this is the green glaze I will be using for the foreseeable future, but I am well aware, I am always one glaze test away from going with something entirely new.

Illustrated is the kaku-kinuta vase I posted up on the blog a week ago. The glaze responded well on the form and allowed the details and marks from the paddling to stand out without obscuring them. Where the glaze ran and pooled on the shoulder it created a neat effect as the copper built up and began to create a rich blue-green texture. The second illustration is a detail of the mouth and shoulder of an Oribe glazed tsubo that has combed slip decoration around the pot. The green is very intense and iridescent around the mouth and elsewhere and there are areas of rich blue-green tendrils created by a saturation of copper in the glaze. All in all, not a bad firing for a test glaze.