MINUS A CAPITAL

Illustrated is my Oribe style glaze over a fluted stoneware teabowl based on an ancient Roman ionic column. I find it interesting how easy it is to mix influnces and for this bowl, as I mentioned, the form is loosely Roman, the glaze is Japanese influenced and the foot of the bowl has its origins from the Leach/ Mackenzie tradition of pottery making. The fluting itself became yet another mix of influences and pieces parts as I used to have a fluting tool but somewhere along the way I misplaced it so it is no where to be found. I decided to make one out of a piece of sheet metal that the heating & cooling people left behind at my request many years back, by cutting a rectagle, I then cut two slits at the top of the strip and then using a piece of half-round molding, I created the area which protrudes and flutes the clay. The tool didn't turn out to be the best or most sturdy fluting tool ever made but did the job in a pinch as I had thrown a few pieces to flute (meaning they were thick!) and needed the tool I thought was still in an old pottery tool box. All in all, this made for an interesting day combining influences from several sources and repurposing some scrap material that was destined to be thrown away, hopefull the results were worth all the perturbation.