I've
been around pottery and potters long enough that I can tell you what makes a
good pot and a good potter and one characteristic that is shared is that sense
of pushing the form and surface right to the edge and not crossing that line,
the creation of a piece that is just right. One of the things that I have
realized about my time making pots is that I have a seemingly genetic marker
for being a bit unrestrained, in other words generally I get right up to that
edge and then take a good flying leap beyond it. Illustrated is a 2vue shot of
a teabowl I recently glazed and fired using my new nuka oatmeal ash glaze,
NOA-3 for short, as you can see there is nothing subtle about the piece with a
black slip under the glaze and two iron glazes over the surface to create a
rather abstract decorated surface. Though I doubt one can tell, there is a
pattern which roams around the bowl three times in the darker iron glaze with
areas of the yellow iron being put randomly about the surface, I realize it is
a bit chaotic but I love the frentic energy of decorating this way and in how
the pieces turn out. Though there is some method to the madness, the way the
glazes are brushed on without the ability to see where the slips are underneath
makes for a certain degree of random chance to dictate how the final piece will
turn out and that is where I am most happy. "Random
chance plays a huge part in everybody's life." Gary Gygax
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