A BOTTLE OR TWO

I ended up having to throw a couple of taller cylindrical covered jars the other day and realizing how they will take up space I decided to throw a couple of 14" tall vases or bottles as you decide to define them. Each was thrown out of 3.5lbs of clay and will have a shallow tooled in foot when they are completed. The base of the form is terminated with a pronounced flair that creates a sturdy base and also acts to slow down glaze flow as heat and gravity take over. I should mention that this piece was thrown in one piece, it sort of happened organically and where I would normally throw the neck separately I used a throwing stick and my sponge on a stick to help facilitate the task at hand. At this point I am likely to glaze one of the bottles in the Kuro-oribe style with a heavier concentration of iron up around the top quarter of the form which should then run quite dramatically while the other will be decorated in temmoku and iron to accentuate the simple features of the piece. As you can see in the photo I have added depressed lines around the mouth and shoulder of the pot together with a combed band to hopefully create more movement in the pot as well as to fill with the Oribe glaze and create dark, dramatic lines on the surface. Making a bottle or two for the firing wasn't a lot of extra work and coupled with the two covered jars will fill one half shelf in the kiln allowing the rest of the space to be used to the fullest which I rarely fail to do.