A TRIO

As I continue to go through old images, here is another blast from the past, a trio of pouring vessels. I have enjoyed working with both vitrifying slips and engobes over the years and continue to do so right through the present while the one surface that I use the most is the ishime (stone) surface. I am constantly trying new things to see where the texture and surface works and where it doesn't on various clays, from cone 6 to 9 and in both oxidation and reduction.  More than a few years back I went through a phase of making groups of smaller pots, teapots and pouring vessels with primal, elementary incised and inlaid designs of which the illustrated trio is an example. Loosely based on found stones, the designs were incised to best articulate the small forms and to give them an ancient, archeological style presence. The bodies were first thrown and then carefully beaten to their current form, with both thrown spout and handles were applied. The decoration around the pots was incised once the clay have gotten quite firm using a sharpened bamboo knife. The surface was applied, a liner glaze used and then fired to about cone 9. Entitled, THE THREE WISEGUYS, this trio was accepted into a juried exhibition and collected by Ceramics Monthly for their permanent collection.