Jane Wheeler's Blog 2013 July

pushing a little too far

Posted jane -->on 31st Jul 2013

another firing; rather mixed results – overconfident glazing and I pushed the thickness of slip and glaze too far on some pieces.

cone eleven caught me by surprise at the end of the firing and started to go before I was ready for it, that is, before I had done the short oxidising soak at the top of the firing.

this big bottle, which I had originally intended to glaze with the barium and magnesium overlap, worked really well.

and you can see the glaze test of the dark pink glaze, which worked properly up high in the middle of the top – a reliable spot for reduction.

disaster for the porcelain piece, the temperature was too high for this glaze on porcelain, and chipping it off the shelf ruined the foot. I got the glaze off the shelf without too much trouble, and filled the ring it left with calcined alumina.

the main problem was the thickness of the crackle slip and the chun glaze, producing some spectacular crawling.

under control, this is great, I love it on the mid section of the big bottle

borderline on this flagon

and sad on these two little bottles. there were four that I ruined this way. the slip and glaze were trying to crack off as they dried, and when this happens I MUST scrape back and start again, it’s no good hoping it will be okay.

some pieces were absolutely fine

I am very pleased with this piece, it is the best attempt at this shape I have managed for a long time and the “black ice” effect suits it perfectly.

these two oval boxes as I have decided they are rather than lidded jars, are fine too, though I could have drawn through the slip and brought out the original scoring more.

a close up of this new dark pink glaze. it has copper carbonate and iron oxide doing a balancing act between celadon and copper red; it needs to be on thick to get the red coming out.

on this piece it did not mature properly, due to its position in a cooler place in the kiln – too hot for the black porcelain piece behind it, too cool for the stoneware glaze.

another bowl in unwashed ash worked well.

almost my favourite – the one little bottle I did scrape back and reglaze.

you can see the whole firing here

I am off to Potfest in the Pens tomorrow, at Penrith cattle market on the southern edge of the Lake District on Friday, Saturday and Sunday ten to five daily, post code CA11 0DN, map here.

(6 comments)

“strong feeling”

Posted jane -->on 18th Jul 2013

in 2007 I was privileged to meet the master potter Shiho Kanzaki at his home and workshop in Shigaraki, through some very dear Japanese friends. we tipped up on a Sunday afternoon and introduced ourselves out of the blue. Shiho san is a very courteous and friendly, somewhat ascetic person, who loves to share himself and his pots, and his world view, and while my friends talked to him, I was invited to look at his work very thoroughly.

in his book, “Encounters with Fire, Encounters with People” which is available as an e-book on Amazon, he says some very interesting things about the creative process, and being a creative person. in living his life to the full, aware of the Infinite, and of his debt to it, and to every person that he has encountered, he can create his own ceramics, without pride and without the sense that he had accomplished success through his own efforts, and in gratitude. he says everyone has his or her own task, and each has a responsibility to fulfil that task – no-one else can fulfil it. his task is to “create his own ceramics, pieces that cannot be made by anyone else. his pottery is not made to please others, or for the sake of novelty, or to show off his technical expertise.” …..” either we live in confusion, rushing to and fro, misguided by short-sighted calculation and self-seeking, or we become fully ourselves and openly live our lives in the freedom of our essential inner natures.”

Iga vase, iga hanaire. h.25.5cm, by Shiho Kanzaki

one can see a creative practice as an indulgence, as a form of narcissism. “what’s it for?” “why am I wasting precious resources making pots which are not necessary for daily life”. Shiho san makes me feel that I am doing the right thing, following the path that my creative instincts tell me to. I am encouraged by my friends, and I am grateful to many friends and many encounters – a whole web of circumstances – which have meant that I am here, writing my blog about making pots in a particular way, which is my own.

“strong feeling” is an expression Shiho san often uses about those pots which have undergone ten to fifteen day wood firings near or in the firebox of his kiln. my most recent firing contained several pots that I would describe as strong, with some kind of intensity produced by the clash of materials used on them, not by long firing. I fire my gas kiln for about fourteen hours, but there are other ways of making “strong feeling” pots, I think.

for this firing I felt very confident that I could produce a lot of pieces with the oxide/crackle slip/chun layering, so two thirds are glazed this way. after the scraping off episode when I glazed the last batch I was fairly careful, but inevitably I was tempted to push just that little bit further with the thickness of oxide, slip and glaze. I almost overdid it on one piece and the whole lot started to crack off where the double dipping made it thickest – but I pushed it back on while still damp. some of that did fall off, and there were blobs of glaze on the kiln floor around it, but the pot itself was fine. this chun glaze is very forgiving – and the thickness gave me these wonderful blue coloured runs.

I haven’t had the blue happening much on the chun for the last two firings and I was wondering if the new batch was different – but it was just a matter of thickness, and something to do with the firing as well, because on some of these it is only on one side.

on others where the chun isn’t so thick the black iron oxide appears to be bursting out from under the layer of slip.

I have a lot of pots that I can glaze this way – as this one, which had been hanging back for a good while now, with no inspiration from me on what to do with it. using the oxide means I don’t have to worry about which clay the body is; they all work well with this combination.

the other third of the firing was with the ash glazes – really the most interesting is the unwashed ash.

I cleaned the glaze off the feet more thoroughly, and the firing was not quite as reduced and not quite as hot as the last one, so I didn’t have ash melt all over my shelves.

you can find images of the whole firing here

(2 comments)

Art in Clay at Hatfield House July 2013

Posted jane -->on 10th Jul 2013

this is the second time I have had a stand at Hatfield Art in clay – last year it poured with rain for almost the whole three days – this time it was wall-to-wall sunshine and very hot, and on the Sunday afternoon it was the most exciting men’s Wimbledon final for years. people still came along – but I felt sorry for those who didn’t have a lovely Japanese fan like mine, made of paper and split bamboo – it is a very efficient cooler. the backdrop for the six marquees holding a hundred and ninety potters is the park of Hatfield House, acres of grass and woodland, with a little glimpse of the gilded towers and cupolas of the house visible in places, a wonderful place to camp. Tilda had an amazing encounter with a fox early on Sunday morning; it didn’t run away, but they seemed to be sizing each other up, until I called her – then the fox trotted off into the wood.

I was very pleased with my stand, it looked so much better than last year. the banner helped a lot. I had a range of work which was much more together, and more my own.

plus it was lighter anyway, with back-lighting in the morning as the sun lit up the tent. the pale grey linen curtains from Ikea and the only very slightly grey white of the plinths worked much better.

I sold one of these tall flagons, the quietest one, and one of the pod or tower shapes too.

there were two little black bottles here on the first day

it was really busy with serious collectors on the Friday, then it turned into more of a PR event over the weekend; I was pretty hoarse in the evenings. it was lovely to see friends – Jon and Jo, Tim and family, Dameon, Addy and Rohan, Mark, Brigitte, James and Sam, Gas and Sara, and Sarah, who all came to visit me over the three days, bearing presents too! some of these photos are taken by James and Jon (thank you!). camping was pleasant in such lovely weather, and I spent three wonderful evenings with close potter friends, relaxing and eating. (I have to recommend hatfield fish and chips – very fresh fish). ceramic fairs are a great opportunity to meet up with other potters, and look at other people’s work. I came back with several pieces from Susanne Lukas-Ringel, Sabine Nemet, and two platters from Jean-Nicolas Gérard, and a very beautiful little yunomi (teabowl) from my neighbouring stand, John Jelfs, consumate potter and good friend. I should also mention collector Godfrey Fry who helped me put the stand together and always offers helpful and thoughtful advice.

the izettle credit payment app worked very well, once I got the card reader charged up …..

I had the pod form that sold down here on the ground, next to this big bottle which is 6 years old and never been shown before . you would think that would be the last place anyone would notice it – but actually then you could see the grooving in the top properly.

lots of people loved the icy blues and greys – they said it made them feel cooler and refreshed.

it’s the Emanuel Cooper delicate chun that’s doing it, the bubbles in it bend the light and give these lovely pale blues and opalescent effects.

two of these flagons from the last firing also went, which was very pleasing – I have several more waiting to be fired.

there was plenty of interest in the ash glazes, and I hope these will do well in the future.

several gallery owners also liked the work – so watch this space!

I have another fair to do in about three weeks, Potfest in the Pens, in Penrith cattle market, on the second, third, and fourth of August.

(3 comments)

syrup and jam

Posted jane -->on 3rd Jul 2013

recently I bought a new hipstamatic kit, San Paolo (that’s the app for iphone which gives you photos that look like old Polaroids). the pinkish slightly underexposed syrupy filter reminds me of sleepy humid cloudy english summers – just like today, so I have been happily snapping the hedgerows and garden with it.

it’s the time of year for roses. despite the recent rain and wind they are full of flowers, dog roses in the hedgerow, and their tamer cousins in the garden. most of the dog roses I have in the garden got a punitive prune in February, so we won’t be seeing any flowers or hips on them this year. I must try for a more selective pruning that leaves some of this year’s wood next time.

I love dog roses, their looping habit and simple flowers turn hedges into things of beauty.

hogweed, my bête noir; but outside of my garden I adore it! it is sculptural and graphic, every plant has a different curve and length of stem and arrangement of the great plates of flowers, and I think I have to make an embroidery of it for the next knit collection.

a plant you find all over Elizabethan embroideries, and scenting especially favoured hedges, is honeysuckle, or woodbine. it is pollinated by moths and the red berries are loved by many birds, including bullfinches, who visit my garden for them in the autumn.

in woods you find it in leaf before any of the trees, taking advantage of the spring sunshine before the canopy blocks it out, but here it takes its turn with the rest of the hedgerow plants.

ribwort plantain, another decorative plant, with its ribbed leaves and halo of stamens, is everywhere, competing with the grasses after they have been trimmed.

a view of Gunthorpe from the grassy bank of Bullfer Grove; wildflowers thrive here where it is only cut once a year.

I love field scabious. this photo washes out the delicate lilac-blue colour. in a good year for butterflies these flowers in Clip street lane will be full of them; the caterpillars of several feed on the leaves.

one never tires of grasses in flower – unless one suffers from hay fever! these puffed pollen over my clothes.

hogweed, nettles, thistles – a frieze of graphically pleasing shapes …. the edges of the fields are lined with them now weedkiller is not used on roadside hedges and banks.

and here is the rather tatty combine harvester belonging to a small local farm getting its annual service before it has to go into action. it will be a couple of weeks before even the winter sown barley is ready – it is only just starting to shade into blonde.

white campion has a delicate scent, which the red doesn’t, and Clip street lane is the best place to find it round here.

these flint walls in our village blend in so well with wild plants like this mallow.

back in my garden, I have bumblebees buzzing in the hedge woundwort in my garden – it has colonised several sheltered spots .

and one glorious bourbon rose, doing very well this year, Mme Isaac Periere. she wafts a gentle spicy citrony scent across the flowerbed to the path. one day I will try making rose petal jam with the flowers.

(no comment)

that big red flame ….

Posted jane -->on 1st Jul 2013

another firing … and this time I was determined to get the reduction right. for some glazes I really don’t want this excessive reduction, but now I am working with ash and a lot of bare clay it needs to be really toasty – and hot.

I stopped the reduction at top temperature and soaked for half an hour at 1255C – and that sent cone 11 over, so it was a hot firing. I had a huge red flame coming out of the flue all the way up from 1100C.

there was one fatality – the big bottle looks very overcooked, the pizza clay has gone a nasty buff colour and the barium glaze really didn’t work on it.

and a lot of the unwashed ash melted and ran onto the shelves.

but it was worth a bit of chiselling and drexel grinding for these glazes.

the unwashed ash leaves a halo of flux that has soaked into the surrounding clay, and pools of glass where it runs into hollows in the form.

the jar lid stuck very firmly to the shelf, and came away with big chunks of shelf attached. my little drexel drill with its tiny carborundum disc tidied it up enough to fit into the jar.

this is the glaze that Steve Parry, my wood-firing and kiln building potter friend, uses. in his version, the pine ash from his kiln gives him a nuka glaze, thick and creamy, opaque and runny. I have used utile (an african hardwood) ash and it has made a beautiful celadon type of ash glaze. all ashes have different chemical compositions, which change how glazes made with them work.

this bowl has the unwashed ash, and underneath are solidified rivulets of melted ash. the heat of the firing made the bowl sit down onto the shelf slightly, so another tap or two on the chisel was needed to get it off the shelf, and some more work with the drexel.

now the part that was stuck to the shelf is smoother than the rest. a thick layer of batt wash covers the shelves and mostly prevents a permanent weld.

I have used the oxide slip and chun glaze combination on three of these flagons and a bowl, but I have to be careful, at first I put the layers on too thickly and it all started to peel off – so I had to scrape it all off, sponge the oxide layer to a more washed out consistency, and re-slip and glaze the pieces. because of that I was a little conservative about the thickness of the slip and the glaze the second time around, and they have come out with much less crawl than in the last firing.

but the oxide was very thick in certain places and it has bloomed through the slip and glaze.

unfortunately I could not resist the extra bit of thickness in the bowl, and the crawling has turned into raised cracks just where you don’t want it.

however, these bowls are more decorative objects than functional.

but these and the last firing’s flagons represent a huge step forward in the use of slip and oxides and decorative looseness

which together with what’s happening with the ash glazes seems to me to be a quantum leap in my practice. here’s the link for photos of the whole firing https://www.dropbox.com/sh/r1hvqyydjxhuym8/NgmumsxoiS

meanwhile everything is blooming in the garden and the countryside around Bale and deserves a blog post on its own.

(3 comments)

pushing a little too far

“strong feeling”

Art in Clay at Hatfield House July 2013

syrup and jam

that big red flame ….

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