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
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