Practicing Pottery

Making pots over the past month I came to realize that it is truly a practice. This is the second season in my own studio creating; developing my forms, surface decorations, and glazes. There are a lot ideas out there tin the world, and I mean a lot. I am constantly inspired, but to get what I want to achieve is another matter. As I work on these ideas I think about my teachers, specifically Cynthia Bringle. I can not count the number of times I hear her words and ideas as I work through my process of creating pots. Practice, practice, practice, and edit. "If you don't like it now, you won't like it later," CB's words ring in my ears.

Speaking of practice, I have been exploring sgraffito, scratching or carving through slips or terra sigillata with stains. In the beginning, I was using slips only to find my liner glaze washed out the slip color, and if it was applied too thick, then it crazed. Argh! So, then I went through the process of finding a glaze that did not wash the color of the slip and not craze. After trying a couple of Val Cushing's glazes, I realized I needed to figure out the application method. Do I dip, brush, or spray? Best method is spraying, a light application is all it takes. I chalked that one up to success. However, I still was not happy with the clay burrs from carving in the slip when it was leather hard, even after brushing with a soft brush when it dried. Back to the Internet and books for more information. Finally, I found that several potters use terra sigallata, a finer clay slip, and carved when the clay was bone dry, after applying the terra sigillata.  Back to the drawing board and more practice. and more experimenting. Next I started thinking about how I am looking at my subject matter and how I carve my lines. This was noticeable when I looked at my Instagram feeds. Looking at the picture allowed me to notice aspects I missed in the studio. I am asking myself questions like: Do I leave some black in the negative space that is carved white? Or do I leave it all white? How do I highlight the main feature? Accented line or small line? Then there is the aspect of combining colors or even considering glaze colors on the interior of horizontal forms that best compliments the outside surface decoration. Practice, practice, practice.

 

Finally, practice pays off.  In some of my later firings I had some great results with combing wood glazes. I will be sticking to these combinations when I am not decorating surfaces. I am looking forward to what happens in the next few weeks.