BIT OF SODA & COPPER

I am never disappointed with the sheer range of iron and copper in glazes and this is a perfect example where a bit of soda and copper make for an interesting surface. Though this is my tweaked version of a soda blue glaze, I didn’t come up with this all on my lonesome, I am honestly not sure where it came from, Linda Christianson, Linda Arbuckle or possibly Kirk Mangus way back in the 90s, but it works well and has been a staple glaze all this time.      

This soda blue hakeme teabowl stems from a series where a simple cylinder is thrown on the wheel and then somewhat inspired by the kutsu-gata concept, manipulated a bit before using a rasp and a simple disposable thin wedge to finish off the bowl. The bowl is then covered in a thin black slip inside and out before a thick white slip is applied and then textured, hakeme style. The diagonal pattern works well even on this ovoid form to play on a sense of movement. I am working on trying to figure out how this soda blue glaze works with various forms and ideas and suspect like my saffron, temmoku and Oribe glazes, there will be no shortage of attempts and failures leading to the occasional success, time will tell.