For the 3rd year in a row I have borrowed a potters wheel for the summer.
It's a cute little Shimpo and I adore it.
I also adore that I only have it for about 6 weeks and have to plan accordingly.
I got a pretty good rhythm going. I injured my knee so I was home bound anyway and at first I had to use crutches to get out to the studio and sit down at the wheel. I have a small kiln, so I planned a kiln load at a time and got cone 6 glazes. I ordered last years Celadon and 5 lbs each of a Gold glaze from a place in the East Coast that mailed them out to me dry, so I mixed them up in 5lb yogurt containers. I went out to Aardvarks in Santa Anna midway to get more Steve's White Cone 6 clay but at first used what I had from last year which was Steve's White, another grainier white and a stainy Mesa Red.
So last year's work was mostly Celadon Green with incised drawings on vessels, telling stories and just loving the drawing into the set up clay. I would throw in the morning, let them set open air and draw in the afternoon. I added a Sienna to the Celadon to get some more variety in the color. A lot of the imagery was about bunnies, Redheads and a man with a hat.
This summer, I started where I had left off using poppy pink, frosted melon and Celadon glazes.
Poppy and Celadon Rumtopf
Then I started the incising imagery, more birds because from where I sat, I had left out parrot food in a bowl that was lifted off the ground by a plaster Putti sculpture and I was enchanted by the birds feasting.
And then I got going, sometimes I worked when I didn't even want to. I was on a schedule. I quietly imagined kiln loads and drying times and sections of work to do daily. I wanted to make plates,but pulling outward was challenging so I made flatter bowls. I came up with a design I wanted to repeat, poppy pink flowers with gold in between. So lovely! Bowls, bowls ,bowls.
When I went out to Aardvarks, I was going to buy more Amoco Cone 6 Glazes, but then I noticed for a lot less $$$, they had 5 lb Aardvark simple glazes in powder form, I could mix myself. I wanted a Tan base, boring by itself, but it would be a warmer light tone than Frosted Melon and I also picked up Black.
So Now I have a new palette of four glazes, Black,Tan, Green and Gold. I start to layer them and use accents of the Sienna Rust, Frosted Melon and Poppy from Amoco. Now I am finished making them for the summer and sit around in a delirium enjoying the effects from a cleaned up position.
Beautiful Bowl by Joyce Lieberman
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