April 2008

- Wheel Thrown
- Laguna B-mix
- Burnished with terra sigilata while bone dry
- Fired in a foil saggar [link] with ferric chloride, horse hair, and sugar.
- No glaze on this piece. The colors are from the fumes and smoke from the ingredients burning inside the foil saggar. The shine is from burnishing/polishing the pot before it was fired the first time.

15 in tall x 8 in wide

I'm really getting a feel of how to control the movement on these foil saggar peices. I'm almost "painting" now with the ingredients and foil. The colors are still left somewhat up to chance though. I can generally tell what range of colors I will get based on how I fire the kiln, but it still decides a lot for me. This is the first time I've gotten orange and purple on the same pot. I was really excited with the colors on this one. I was pleased that the patterns and movement/flow did what I wanted them to do as well.

Other views:
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EDIT:

Thank you to everyone for your suggestions. I know I ultimately didn't go in the direction that most people see, but oddly enough, it helped me get to the ultimate title.

I tend to personify my vessels. For some reason I always attribute feelings, emotions, self images, etc. to them. I love to throw round forms. Especially ones with large upright shoulders. They seem to exude confidence. They illustrate to me what it feels like when a person is proud and self assured. Someone that is comfortable walking into a room full of people. The movement created on the surface by the firing technique illustrates how I see feelings, and thoughts.

I'm a very visual person. Even in my "real job" as a programmer - I don't think like most technical people. Programming, math, playing music - they all form these amorphous, abstract images in my head. This pot looks like my thoughts.

So with all that being said....Anticipation - I think of deep breaths... your shoulders raising in excitement. That feeling in your stomach welling up inside of you waiting for whatever it may be. Images of what's to come, swirling through your head.