NO PHOTO INCLUDED

On and off for the past several years I have been making these thick combed slip bottles in predominantly three glaze surfaces; Oribe, AO+ and iron yellow saffron. Recently I received an email and asked if I could make a large AO+ bottle destined as a gift, normally the largest I tend to make is about 16" tall but they wanted something over 20" when it was fired. Piece of cake I thought and I set about throwing the bulk of the form and then added two coils and threw the rest to the shoulder and luted a neck to the pot when it was firm enough. Once tooled, I applied the thick slip and combed it and was pretty confident all was well. As you may imagine, this is where things went askew as the very top and bottom were slightly different in how dry they were and the addition of the very thick and wet slip caused a split on the inside of the pot where the first coil was added. This of course went unnoticed until the pot was bisque and came out with a crack about 5 inches long and just wide enough to slip a sheet of paper into, hammer-time.     

For my follow-up I decided to throw the form in three pieces, base, top and neck and luted them together, covered it in plastic letting it equalize, tooled it the next day and waited until the last conceivable moment to thick slip the piece. The pot came out of the kiln last week, measured in at just under 21" and was immediately packed and shipped out the same day and that is why no photo is included. Hubris and routine will sneak up on you and give you a good smack every now and again which is probably a good thing for a necessary course correction.      

Illustrated is the culprit that got this adventure started basking in the sun in an old picture taken several years ago. Thick combed slip bottle about 12" tall with my AO+ glaze overall.