New Directions
Clay and Bullets
A few years ago, my wife and I went to visit my sister Dorothy and brother-in-law Dan at their amazing home in the Cariboo. I always enjoy spending time with Dan and was looking for a way to bring our interests together - mine in art and his in hunting. So packed in the trunk of our car was 60 kg of wet clay. I presented Dan with my idea. Take a bunch of clay and his guns out for target practice. The results of that trip are now glazed and mounted and I've compiled a short slideshow of the process. It took just over three years form start to finish largely because I was stuck for a while trying to figure out how best to mount these pieces. When my wife and I renovated our home we extracted some 4" x 12" fir which, when stripped of several hideous layers of paint, seemed a good match for the sculptural pieces.
The Good Kind of Cracking
I have had some recent success with a form of slip decoration that I have been trying to recreate since I first saw it on a mug I purchased when visiting the city of Hagi, which is one of the foremost ceramic towns of Japan. What appealed to me was a network of fine cracks on the top layer of slip which created an additional textural appeal beyond the contrast of the two slips and wax resist decoration. This texture is then covered with a clear glaze so the visual appeal of the texture is preserved while the glaze gives a smooth finish ideal for functional ware.
If At First You Don't Succeed...
I have also been dabbling with heavier sculptural pieces. As any potter will tell you, firing anything of uneven thickness presents problems. My rule of thumb has been to keep things under 1 cm in thickness. I do however have some sculptural aspirations and so I have been doing some experimenting with simple heavy pieces. I made a set of numbers for our street address with each number consisting of about 60 lbs of clay. After blowing up three of the first four numbers, I drastically increased my firing time from a complete cycle of about 36 hours to over 80 hours. This worked beautifully and has me excited to explore a number of ideas that I have been playing with.
I have had some recent success with a form of slip decoration that I have been trying to recreate since I first saw it on a mug I purchased when visiting the city of Hagi, which is one of the foremost ceramic towns of Japan. What appealed to me was a network of fine cracks on the top layer of slip which created an additional textural appeal beyond the contrast of the two slips and wax resist decoration. This texture is then covered with a clear glaze so the visual appeal of the texture is preserved while the glaze gives a smooth finish ideal for functional ware.
If At First You Don't Succeed...
I have also been dabbling with heavier sculptural pieces. As any potter will tell you, firing anything of uneven thickness presents problems. My rule of thumb has been to keep things under 1 cm in thickness. I do however have some sculptural aspirations and so I have been doing some experimenting with simple heavy pieces. I made a set of numbers for our street address with each number consisting of about 60 lbs of clay. After blowing up three of the first four numbers, I drastically increased my firing time from a complete cycle of about 36 hours to over 80 hours. This worked beautifully and has me excited to explore a number of ideas that I have been playing with.
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Pottery by Harrison | Home and Studio of Harrison Worsley | 5074 Clutesi Street | Victoria, British Columbia | 250 592 0939 | [email protected]
