Wednesday, June 7, 2023

EXPANDED

I am trying to finish up making pots to fill a kiln with a few orders, commissions and some tests and needed to make a handful of filler pots so I resurrected a technique i first used back in 1990. While attending NCECA I noticed a neat covered jar on the trade table and sought out the maker who I can not for the life of my remember his name though he was an educator from Utah. Since this was long before Youtube I ask him about the technique and here is how it was explained; first throw a thick, narrow cylinder, then using a toothed rib drag it up the surface to create a myriad of straight channels, next expand the form to the desired shape/ form. Though it sounded easy enough, I worked on the technique of expanding without wrecking the pieces once I got back to Cleveland and over an afternoon figured out the basics. This may not seem revolutionary but the dissemination of ideas and techniques was a bit slower in 1990 with Ceramics Monthly being on of the few publications showcasing things as they happened. Flash forward to Wednesday and I know have these two teabowls and a small covered jar tooled and waiting for a bisque firing. Though it may come as no surprise i am likely to glaze these in my Oribe or Kuro-Oribe glazes unless I decide to make a small batch of my old amber glaze though I am feeling a bit lazy.