A (BASE) GLAZE ODYSSEY

As I continued to test the Kuro-Oribe style glaze that I was working with I began to see qualities in it that reminded me of a series of Kurogaratsu pots that I had seen in an exhibition years ago. At this point I decided to start running a parallel line of tests to see if it could be altered  to take on some of the characteristics of what I had seen firsthand and this is the first larger, well larger than a pod or guinomi test to come out. Using the same base glaze* as my Oribe, I added iron, a pinch of copper and some finely ground ash and then a mixed wash of oxides was unevenly put over the surface and here is how it turned out. The sandy clay was made here in small batches and had the grain of the clay opened during the tooling process to further activate the surface which I think it did to good effect. Though a bit hard to see in this reflective nightmare, the surface has a wide array of depths of color from ambers to a chocolaty brown with various tendrils of mixed irons droozing down the surface, proof alone for the theory of gravity if ever it were needed. I should just mention that I began using this altered base glaze almost 15 years ago and it has been a true windfall as it has been the starting point for quite a lot of the work I have done in stoneware and porcelain for the same amount of time. Now if only I could figure out a way to make an Oni-Shino glaze out of this base maybe I could stop all this testing.  

(*The original formula of this base glaze was given to me by a potter while I lived in Cleveland though I never used it at that time. Years later when I moved here to central NY State I finally tested it and didn't like it right out of the box so I kept modifying it until it suited my needs. I think at this point the formulas are significantly different but without his generosity the odyssey that is this base would likely have never happened.)