At the last meeting on 6th October, members were asked to bring along one new and one old piece of pottery. Here is a copy of the Newsletter report:
At the October meeting members were invited to bring along one old pot and a new pot for discussion.
Ian brought a beautiful carved Lotus patterned Chinese bowl which was presented in its own wooden box. The green glaze was thought to be a copper celadon. The thought was expressed that well made traditional style pots don’t age. This led to the question, are pots for use or to look at? Who amongst us would use a Ming Dynasty bowl to serve up a curry?
Gail presented a little slipcast figurine of a girl leaning against a tree stump in soft pinks and cream. It belonged to her grandmother and has a signature but no company brand. It seemed to be in the style of Staffordshire works of perhaps the 1800’s.
Gail’s second more modern piece was a pair of carved Luang Chuan vessels. After all trying to guess what they were we were told they were salt and pepper shakers but without holes in the top. They were thrown with a tube inside and then closed over leaving a hole in the base where they were filled—when shaken while upright the salt or pepper came out of the tube.
Next was a Hamada pot dated from 1978. Bisque fired thrown and altered bowl with a flat rim with a cut out and additions.
Jamie brought along some examples of his glaze on glaze decoration. Glazed all over with a Celadon and then he uses a mix of copper red and rutile flour to produce ‘dots’ all over the vessel. The mix of rutile is approximately 100ml of glaze plus 1 teaspoon of rutile flour.
Ian suggests that a Titanium based glaze can be used and sprayed over bisque wear with oxides eg. 1% Iron + Cobalt . This mix can also be used for brush decoration.
Next was a souvenir piece from Croatia. Slipcast, it showed a ‘map’ of the town with lots of raised buildings and place names.
Anna’s two pots included a small vase made in PNG in the 1980’s and glazed using a Blue Ash Glaze. Fired in Reduction had given it extra speckle from the iron based clay. The second piece was a egg cup from an Irish company which employs 3 throwers to produce everything from egg cups to huge metre high vase shapes along the Dingle Peninsula. The simple combination of a white glaze over temuko with an overlap made an interesting piece.
Therese brought along a bowl with an Australian landscape design. It appeared to have had the dry glaze sprayed on. The blue glaze may have contained Barium making it unsuitable for food.
Beth and Jitka spoke of their travels and some of the exhibitions they attended such as Barbara Hepworth in the UK, while Jitka spoke of an amazing copy of the famous Prague clock which a village potter has made.
Get a few potters together and a few pots and we can all have a very enjoyable conversation.
