PORCELAIN SLIP AND ORIBE

Illustrated is a teabowl I made a short while back and used in a blog post about pinholing and excessive gas during firing. The bowl came out and it seems like I have most of the gas problem solved. The Oribe glaze is composed of both iron and copper and tends to pinhole now and again as part of its nature so a piece the size of the teabowl may end up with a couple of small and insignificant pinholes and I can live with that. The real point of the test is using the porcelain slurry slip giving the bowl a great tactile effect as well as being quite animated visually high lighting the varying shades and textures of the oribe glaze. I particularly enjoy how the glaze runs down the channels  made by combing the slip pooling around the base and creating a swirling copper blue-green effect adding more depth and variety to the surface. I think this glaze and slip are close to being as fine tuned as possible and there is some sense of reward in this problem solving but I suspect my testing is far from over.

"The reward of a thing well done is to have done it." Ralph Waldo Emerson