porcelain

I have not written about the pots for a while. I have a new project, making porcelain pieces for Mina Perhonen in Japan, which are more production pieces, even though they are still made by hand, but things have been slow, with many interruptions.

the order consists of bottles, conical bowls, and spoons. it has taken a few weeks to get anywhere near filling the kiln, but there are enough pieces to start packing it now.

I have experimented with many different textures, made by impressing leaves, ivy flower heads, and various implements into the porcelain.

the spoons are very delicate; a mouse broke one by treading on it – a fat mouse presumably. I can’t get rid of them in the workshop.

I have also made some more jars with cut-off lids, using the impress/stamping technique to almost pierce the clay, or pushing knife or brush handles through it.

as the porcelain is translucent, this should allow the light into/out of these, and they might be pretty with tea-lights in them.

the last set of pieces were these six bottles, made in Southern Ice porcelain. it seems to split open even more than the Audrey Blackman, I was surprised to find most of these with top to bottom splits in them, although I had made deep grooves in them by impressing apple leaves into them, which have big central stems, and will have encouraged the clay to open.

the oak leaf and rose hip arrangement is one of the decorations I made for our feast; taken out of the hedgerow in Sharrington Road, the oaks are for us sea-going types (Hearts of Oak) and for the Bale oak ….

I will try some more saggar firing with some of these, but the pieces for Japan will be glazed. there will be some more split firings, I think.