A Very Pregnant Pause

I won't be able to post any more pottery works on this blog anymore until I figure a way to continue it in Middle East.

I look forward to bringing in new works soon and perhaps more exciting inspiration.

White Vase

This small altered vase was glazed with matt white and then painted oribe and black using big brush.

It will be a long time before I post any more pottery pieces at this blog. I suppose this will be the last piece till I find an alternative pottery studio. I look forward to doing more in the near future.

Teadust with Tomato Red Bowl

This small bowl was trailed with white glaze with tomato red glaze over teadust.

Moonstone with Teadust Small Bowl

A small bowl that is dipped in teadust followed by the moonstone, overlapped at the centre.

Teadust Bowl with White Rim

I was practising on the forms of bowls and was focusing on the slope in the bowl as well as the shape that makes it pleasing to the eye.

I have kept the glazes to earthen colours.

Black Altered Form IV

This is the largest of the series.

And I stopped making forms in series at this point in time.

Black Altered Form III

A bigger form of the series.

Black Altered Bowl II

The second black altered form. This series was meant to be the contrast of the white altered forms.

As opposed to the vertical alteration in the white budding series, this series was mainly altered in circular form.

Smallest of Black Altered Bowl

This is the smallest of the series of black altered bowls.
The glaze was black and matt. It was surprising to see the effect black and not brown as it often turned out to be.

Oribe Black Trailed Bowl

This is a small medium bowl. Again a "feel good" bowl. The oribe is glossy in nature. I trailed the interior of the bowl black. What is interesting is the ocean blue outline of the black trail at the bottom of the bowl. This is one effect I will definitely want to try again.
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Dark Blue with Moonstone Bowl - Exterior

Notice how the moonstone glaze flowed at the side. I kind of like this glaze and may try it on some of my pots/plates.
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Dark Blue with Moonstone - Interior

This was one of my "feel good" pots. I threw it with not much form in mind. I wanted to make it thinner and to try out some glazes. I was pleasantly surprised by the effect that moonstone and dark blue have on each other. The overlap area gave a "quartz" looking effect. Moonstone tend to flow quite a bit and my design on the overlap area was covered.
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Altered Oribe with Black Rim 2 - Interior

This is the interior of the altered form. The reflective property of the glaze makes it tough to photograph as I had wanted to show the light blue that is on the side of the pot. I suppose the oribe glaze is thicker on that side.
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Altered Oribe with Black Rim 2 - Exterior

This is another altered oval form. As you can probably see, I have invested all of them in the oribe with black rim. This has a better form I think but glazing it was quite a challenge. I got to practise on the glazing.
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Altered Oribe with Black Rim 1 - Interior

This is the interior of the bowl. The oribe glaze was thick inside and I was really excited to see the distinct blue ring at the bottom. I had particularly like this effect and had been working on it.
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Altered Oribe with Black Rim 1 - Exterior

This is one of the remaining altered oval forms. I only worked on the oribe with black rim glazes. This time round I painted the rim with only 2 coats of the black glaze. It has a much better effect. Less is definitely more in this case.
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Alternative Budding Series

This is sequel to the Budding Series. I restarted this series only to glaze it light blue this time round. Will probably work further on this.
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Oribe Altered Bowl

This bowl was altered at after throwing by compressing the sides together. Had actually tried out a few bowls before (the oribe bowls) and this was one of the intended ones. Will explore this form a lot more to see what other interesting ideas can evolve from it.

Small Oribe Altered Bowl

test bowl

Oribe Textured Altered Bowl

test bowl

Tomato Red Altered Bowl

An alternative glaze to the altered form.

Tomato Red Altered Bowl

A not quite altered bowl. This was one of the initial bowls where I was too cautious in alteration, hence the result was not as obvious as intended.

Blue Altered Bowl

This bowl altered bowl was initially an oval bowl wannabe. It turned out that the form wasn't quite right and I had to take away a large part at the top. Hence, it became a smaller bowl. I kind of randomly "poked" the sides while it was still soft from the throwing.

At leather hard, after the turning, I was pleased to see the interesting form on the exterior and the translucent glaze seems to flatter it more.

A possible form to work on after the oval forms.

Oribe on Moonstone Black Trailing Series

The glazes worked out very well... Much better than I expected. I particularly like the effect of the molten black gaze on the oribe (green), it has this oceanic blue result, which kind of reminds me of the coast. Then again, this can only happen when the glazes are of certain concentration.

Alas, the pot did not survive the firing. Though the glazes turned out great, the pot was stuck to the kiln shelf due to the flowing of the glazes, thus destroying the foot of the pot.

This is the last of my trailing series. I am disappointed that none of the pieces turn out good. Perhaps I will work on them again... This time round focusing on the form and making sure that they are centred properly. Plates aren't like bowls, they reveal all weaknesses and flaws.

Blue and White Trailing Series

I started with an idea to trail on both sides of the plate with contrasting glazes by using the wax resist. Unfortunately, the wax resistent was not sufficient and thus the effect did not come out as planned. Nevertheless, this challenging series did not work out as the form of the pot was not good. If you look closely, it is out of shape... and it was intended to be round.

Tomato Red Trailed with White and Teadust

It looks better in photo. I had great hopes on this piece but unfortunately, the final firing showed all its flaws and weakness. The glaze turned out ok but the form is disappointing. Oh well.....

More Trailing

Interesting glazes.. but the form could be better. Sigh.. it has been disappointing.

The warped one
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matt blue
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Teadust white laced bowl
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The warm series
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Another look
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A closer look
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Test Slabs

I did a series of test slabs to test the glazes as well as how they will turn out with overlapping. For some reasons I have been unable to come up with interesting combinations despite making a conscious effort to vary them. Perhaps they are too small... perhaps I have thinking this not too clearly.... more test slabs coming this way...

Finally!

Finally... today I threw 2 shallow bowls.... and I was happy with them.

For a moment I did think that I wasn't going to be able to throw anymore.... for the past week, I have racking my head, wondering what had gone wrong. For 3 weeks, I had nothing thrown... well... not the form I had in mind. My mind was going through the process over and over again.

In some ways, I am glad that this frustrating period is over. I still have to work on the size but at least the mind and hands are working together... again. Thank goodness.