A LITTLE DEPRESSION

Illustrated is a detail shot of two vases with saucer style mouths that are flanked by a series of rings that allow the glaze to pool in little depressions made using the end of a wood tool. I like putting these depressed areas at various points around my pots to help collect and build up the glaze as it moves to create richer and visually fixating points for the various pieces. The use of this technique works well with not only glaze but slip as well as I usually wipe of the slip from the high points creating yet another visual texture to the surface which can be seen on the saffron, iron yellow vase on the right while the vase on the left clearly shows what happens as the Oribe pools and creates blue-green tendrils in each of the rings. I realize this is not rocket science but the rich, more diverse and engaging you can make the surface, the better the story the pot will have to tell and that is what I am constantly after.

"The next pots is always going to be better than the previous one, that's your motivation." John Leach