I
have had this covered jar up on the top shelf of my storage shelves since they
were built all the way back in New Hampshire. To be honest, I didn't keep it
because I thought it was some stellar example but rather to remind me of trying
to be flexible and as adaptable as possible. Neither the clay or glazes were
something that I had ever used before but I was invited to work with another
potter and this pot and several others were the results. If I remember
correctly, the stoneware clay body came from Sheffield Pottery in Western
Massachusetts and the white glaze was a Val Cushing oxidation white glaze with
the decoration being purely my own thing, I took the leap and just mixed up
three different colors normally used with my majolica hoping they would work
out okay. As you can see in the photos, the colors worked rather well over the
frosty white glaze that has hints of titanium crystals and the cobalt speckling
from the firing further adding to the surface. As I said, not my clay, not my
glaze but I did my best working with unfamiliar materials and for just winging
it I can't say I wasn't totally displeased that it didn't end up some horrendous mess.
Now every time my wife confronts me in
the studio for not being very flexible or adaptable I just reach back and point
to this covered jar which illustrates my point by way of New Hampshire.
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