Show-n-Tell Ceramics, Large Handbuilt Raku Moon Jar

Handbuilt moon jar.

This moon jar is

one of my favorite pieces!

I was inspired to make a moon jar after following Ceramic artist Jane Yang-D’Haene Studio on Instagram. Her moon jars are highly-textured, earthy and gorgeous.

A moon jar is, “A distinctive type of porcelain from the late Joseon period, the moon jar (Korean: dalhangari)—so called because of its evocative form—was usually made by joining two hemispherical halves.” The Met. For glazing, I took inspiration from the way one of my fellow students splattered her own moon jar as well as the neutral base colors of Yang’s jars.

Shout out to my Ceramics instructor Peter Syak who helped me figure out how to create this jar.

• First, I formed two halves by lining two bowls with darted clay.
• After smoothing the darts and letting the clay firm up, I scored and slipped the halves in order to join them.
• Once the closed sphere dried more and we identified the center point on the top, a circular hole was cut out.
• The top rim was formed, scored, slipped and attached. It had to dry enough to withstand the weight of the vessel upside down before adding a foot.
• The foot was formed, scored, slipped and attached at our best estimate of the bottom’s center point. Wherever necessary to reinforce seams, thin coils were added and smoothed.
• The rim and foot dried even more, and then I trimmed the entire piece on the pottery wheel.
• After bisque firing, the piece was glazed using a combo of raku glazes.

I hope this is one of many moon jars!

Sara, Peter, Terri, Barbara, Maxine and me.
Sara made these funny tees with her Cricut machine. Peter’s wearing “I’m Pete” and we all agree”Listen to Pete” is great advice! Lol!

Fire and smoke.

Show-n-Tell Ceramics, Handbuilt Tall Textured Raku Vase

Handbuilt tall textured raku vase.

Copper Luster Glazes Highlight Textures

Summer means workshops taught by instructor-extraordinaire Peter Syak. I enter Peter’s carriage-house Ceramics studio brimming with ideas. Creativity is in the air! A couple of the pieces I made were Raku fired while the others will be fired in the regular kiln. As always, the raku firing was exciting and dramatic!

After weeks of building and glazing, it was time to heat things up or, as we like to say, “play with fire.” We worked over pits filled with sawdust, watched the sawdust burst into flames as soon the hot-orange pottery touched it, covered the flaming pieces with metal containers, quenched ash-covered pieces when the flames died down, and scrubbed the ash off our creations. Needless to say, we smelled like chimneys!

The inspiration for creating the handbuilt tall raku vase was the large coil vase I made last summer. I lined the inside of the tall vase with Clear Crackle glaze and painted the outside with a combination of Cooper Blue, Jade, and Orchard Lusters. They really brought out the textures, don’t you think?

Since Raku fired pieces “weep,” (water condenses underneath them), I display dried grasses in my large coil vase. I’ll do the same with my new vase.

Outdoor raku kiln.

Fire bricks support the kiln lid and our work.

Maxine and Peter (carefully) remove a kiln lid.

Hot-orange pottery.

 

Show-n-Tell Ceramics, A New Bowl

This handmade bowl was my attempt at creating a larger piece featuring a carved design that encircles the vessel. Despite scoring, slipping and smoothing the seams, a small crack appeared after glazing. My teacher suggested re-glazing and re-firing. The crack remained though it doesn’t go through to the bottom.

The bowl and its crack are a metaphor for me.

I work hard to seal the seams of doubt, “re-glazing and re-firing,” but the crack remains. Maybe this bowl is a metaphor for all of us, flawed and not like we’d planned, but still interesting.

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Hon, just like my manuscripts, some ceramics are practice pieces, some get thrown away, and some will be polished and glazed another time. But, I’m happy with these small vases and bowls. I especially like the carving on the vases and the throwing lines on one of the bowls.

Wishing me–and you–places to go in our minds, practice and work where creativity keeps us in the moment and allows anxiety and self-doubt to disappear into the background.

Show and Tell Ceramics II

“”Flower” small serving bowls.

This semester, my Ceramics instructor challenged us to make a set of small bowls that fit together around a center, chalice-shaped bowl, all resting on a plate. It really was a challenge! It took almost the whole ten classes to make, with a lot of mess-ups. My instructor said, “It’s all about the process.” When we’d had a particularly frustrating throwing day, the other students and I would remind each other to slow down and concentrate.

Hon, doesn’t “It’s all about the process” apply to so many things? That’s why I love my wise instructor and the patience Pottery teaches.

Closer look at bowls that fit together. Imagine them filled with different candies. You know I’m all about the sweets!

Unglazed outside of a bowl made with marbled clay.

Another marbled clay bowl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bowl with visible “throwing rings.”

 

Playing With Fire, Raku 2015

Ceramic vase and tea box.

Playing With Clay

This summer, I took a Raku class taught by master ceramicist, excellent teacher, and all-around wonderful guy, Peter Syak. Not only did the hours fly by, the women I took the class with were great company. I was inspired by them, and by the talented students I take ceramics class with year-round. We learn from each other.

Pottery has given me a way to turn off stress, even if it’s just for a few hours a week.  And I don’t mind getting my hands dirty.

Since I took this class last summer and know how beautiful the glazes are, this spring I threw a bunch of clay pots with Raku clay at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey.

Do you know what we potters call ourselves? ADDICTED!  I’m pretty sure someone in our class wears a T-shirt that reads, “I’m a POT-head.”

To find out more about the Raku process, click on these links:

Red Hot Raku (Part 1)

Raku Reaction (Part 2)

Cool Results From Hot Pots (Part 3)

Hon, what do you do to turn off stress?

Raku Kiln. Our pieces were fired at about 1,750 degrees F.

Lace-patterned ceramic vase.

Shallow bowl and darted dish.

 

 

 

 

 

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Wiggle-wire dishes.

Small bowls with appliques and a tea light vessel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Three different pots.

Cool Results from Hot Pots (Raku Workshop Part 3)

Sparks fly as sawdust is tossed on a hot pot. The heat of the fire reacts with the clay minerals and metal elements of the glaze to create a crackling effect.

Raku Crew: Mary, Sharon, Judy, Peter, Maxine (and me).

Raku firing is exciting!  

There’s an extremely hot kiln, orange-glowing earthenware, combustible sawdust and straw and surprise results.  The process is illustrated in my two previous posts, Red Hot Raku and Raku Reaction.

Peter Syak, our amazing instructor, mixes his own glazes.  He knows how much exposure to air–or not, how much sawdust to add–or not, and how long to keep pots covered–or not, is required to get the amount of crackling, luster and intense color desired.  Still, oxygen, heat, or a pause in placement of buckets all contribute to the outcome.

The earthenware’s temperature drops as it sits under the metal buckets.  The reaction process stops when each piece is quenched in a trashcan filled with water.  Soot is scrubbed off, pieces are cleaned, and we “ooh and ahh” at the results.

Have you heard of Horse-Hair Raku?  I hadn’t either.  Instead of placing a red-hot pot in a reduction chamber (ie. metal buckets with combustible material), its decorated by touching horse hairs to the the 1800 degree clay surface. The hair ignites, creating dark grey lines and smudges.  Similarly, sugar sprinkled on the burning surface reacts with the clay.  Take a look!

Maxine touching individual horse hairs to her burning hot pot.

Sugar sprinkled on the pot creates texture and unexpected spots.

Three of my pieces.

Maxine’s wheel-thown vases. Isn’t the crackling cool?

My “button vase” with a happy goat and flower stamps as “buttons.”

Judy’s tea box with a piece of driftwood that she’ll attach to the top.

Lovely!

Hon, have you every tried raku?  What did you create?

 

 

 

Raku Reaction (Raku Workshop Part 2)

Fire and smoke.

In my previous post, Red Hot Raku (Raku Workshop, Part 1), the kiln was king.  You can bet we listened carefully when our amazing instructor, Peter Syak, guided us through the reduction process!  Even so, when we were on “bucket brigade” and handled our pieces just transferred from the kiln, the heat seeped right through our extra-thick, fire-retardent gloves.  I had to rip the gloves off and fan my fingers!

Guess what happens when ANYTHING touches a surface that’s 1800 degrees F?  It bursts into flames!

Here are some pictures of the process.  Hon, stand back from the fire…unless you’re on “bucket brigade.”

Beds are prepped and waiting for our hand-built and wheel-thrown pieces.

Peter calls lifting the kiln lid “a dance!”

 

 

 

 

 

Peter uses long, metal tongs to remove our red hot pieces.  He QUICKLY and CAREFULLY places each piece in a spot on the sawdust bed.

Our earthenware is set in the sawdust bed and covered with metal buckets filled part-way with straw.

Metal buckets, roasting pans and planters cover our pieces (and conduct heat).

Mary and Peter nestle a bucket on a large piece, attempting to minimize any air leakage.

“Aluminum containers act as reduction tubes. Reduction is a decrease in oxidation number.  Closing the can reduces the oxygen content after the combustible materials such as sawdust catch fire and forces the reaction to pull oxygen from the glazes and clay minerals.  Luster gets its color from deprivation of oxygen. The reaction between the oxygen and clay minerals affects the color of the clay and the metal elements of the glaze.” (Wikipedia)

I help “burp” the pieces by lifting buckets and lids, while Peter adds more sawdust.

Peter tosses sawdust on the ware where more crackling is desired. Pieces are quickly and carefully re-covered. Buckets are nestled into beds to reduce escape of air/ smoking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tossing sawdust on a burning-hot pot.

Whoosh! The sawdust bursts into flames.

 

 

 

 

Dramatic flames and experienced hands.

Judy’s sculpture was re-covered and left to cool a bit more before it was handled again.  Notice the crackling of the glaze.

What happens next?  

Red Hot Raku (Raku Workhop Part 1)

Hake and regular paintbrushes.

Clay Maven

You know how I love to “play with clay“?  This summer I learned something new.  I learned Raku!

I just finished a wonderful workshop given by master ceramicist, Peter Syak.  He instructed more and less experienced (umm, that would be me) students how to create vases, plates, boxes and sculptures, and how to fire them in a raku kiln.

According to Wikipedia, Raku originated in Japan and is “thick-walled, rough, lead-glazed earthenware.” Raku means “enjoyment, comfort and ease.”  The workshop was definitely enjoyable, but as for comfort, I smelled like a smokestack at the end of the day.  As for ease, I’m not so sure.  If it weren’t for Peter’s engineering-background and careful attention to detail and safety, we might have glowed orange like our pots after baking in 1800 degrees Fahrenheit!

Over four weeks, we hand-built with raku clay and painted with glaze.  Peter bisque-fired our greenware.

I couldn’t wait to take part in a raku firing.  Hon, hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed the process!

Outdoor kiln.

A propane tank feeds gas into the kiln.  Our pieces are already inside, baking as the Pyrometer tells us when the temperature has reached about 1600 degrees F.

Fire bricks support the kiln lid and our work.

Low temperature.

Extremely hot!

 

 

 

 

 

Hor air vent on top of kiln.

Maxine and Peter (carefully) remove the kiln lid.

Our pieces glow orange.

Red Hot Raku!

 

Show and Tell Ceramics

wheel-thrown bowl with whimsical designs

It’s time for Show-n-Tell and I’m sharing my latest ceramics. Have I mentioned why I love pottery? Because every step of the process takes so much concentration that I think of nothing else while I’m working. Also, any bowl with a cracked bottom can be used…as a planter!

wheel-thrown mugs and a bowl

wheel-thrown bowl

Marbles melted in the kiln created a royal blue bottom.

Wheel thrown berry bowl with plate.