Monday, September 6, 2021

ANOTHER SET

I am always rather pleased to get a dinner ware commission for several reasons, it gives me a concrete objective, allows me to throw and trim until the job is done and of course it helps keep the lights on. In keeping with the back to basics theme this set was simple, place setting for six with dinner plate, luncheon plate and misc. bowl, eighteen pieces in all and thrown in one sitting. The tooling took about the better part of the next day, sanding, loading and bisque firing, glazing which I so truly love (!) and then the completed set. As usual I made seven of each piece and ended up with the place setting as you see it; stoneware glazed in temmoku and medieval green stripes which I sometimes refer to as alien camouflage and it occurred to me after the fact that the pieces could have been oriented in contrasting directions for a better photo but by then it was too late. Perhaps the most arduous part of the process is bubble-wrapping and packing the pieces on my hands and knees with lots of wrap, peanuts and spare cardboard between each piece and then arrange a pick up and away they go. I have made enough of this design that my wife and I now have enough place settings for ourselves that are slightly mismatched but serve our purposes, just another perk of making dinnerware.