Small Lace Kimono Yarn Bowl

Just less than a year ago, I ran into the owner of a yarn shop with whom I had had a not-particularly-successful retail relationship. We had really connected on the theoretical level: She strongly believed in the artisan tradition and wanted to support it by offering other art in her shop. Unfortunately, the folks shopping there didn't even really "see" the pottery she was offering because they weren't expecting to see it there. (I could tell you dozens of stories of folks who have been to my booth at numerous events who have said to me, "You've never had those before!" about an item I've been showing for ten years; selective vision is a reality.) Anyway, we encountered one another again in February 2012 and she inquired as to whether I'd be interested in working on a few projects with them, including buttons and yarn bowls.

I tried out a few ideas and developed an interesting line of lace-embossed ceramic buttons. As I don't throw, however, the yarn bowl concept was more... challenging. It wasn't until I saw a slab-constructed cup at Rovin Ceramics that I figured out how I could tackle the project using my preferred technology.

In designing a Yarn Bowl, there are a couple things to consider: (1) We don't want the yarn rolling all over the place, hence the bowl, but the bowl has to be roomy enough that the ball or cake of yarn can move freely as it unwinds; and (2) there has to be a slot and/or hole through which to feed the yarn smoothly. The slot vs. hole thing perplexes me. I've been told the slot is preferred because then the fiber artist doesn't have to break or cut the yarn; but I've knitted, and eventually you either do have to break or cut the yarn if you're changing colors and the skein is gonna end sometime, regardless. But, regardless, there are folks who want a slot and not a hole through which to feed their yarn.

After a couple of false starts (clay way too plastic; slab too thin; bowl way too big and tall, lots of warping), I came up with a design for a small ball of yarn (suitable for skeins of cotton and/or silk blend yarns) which I'll be able to translate to a larger size for chunkier, wool and wool-blend yarns. Realizing the piece will shrink ten to fifteen percent, I figured out the final diameter of the bowl I wanted to create and factored it by 1.15 (for the shrinkage). I multiplied that by pi (3.14) to determine the circumference I needed for that diameter. I decided the height should be a bit more than the diameter to keep the yarn from popping out.

After rolling out a sufficiently large clay slab, I rolled in an oblong piece of lace for texture and, using a carpenter's square, cut out the size slab I had calculated. Flipping it over so the lace texture was on the bottom, I used the same square to mark an inch up from the bottom and then marked four sections across the bottom and mitered at those marks and at either end, to make the bottom of the cylinder. Cutting a square slab of clay slightly smaller than the desired diameter, I folded up the mitered sections and rolled the large slab into a cylinder, so the miters all met in clean corners

Scoring and slipping the edges of the cylinder and the top of the base slab, I knitted the seam together and positioned the cylinder on the base. Using an icing knife (it's amazing what uses I can find for the tools of other trades!), I clean up the miters at the bottom of the inside of the vessel and pinch the outside corners together with my fingers. I also smooth the seam with a wooden tool. I wanted to make the seam both secure and interesting, so I cut out flat clay medallions using the same lace pattern, scored and slipped the undersides and affixed them along the outside of the seam. I then set the pieces aside to dry until leather hard.

Once leather hard, I cut out the holes in the middle of the medallions in the lace-patterned sides of the pieces and cut a slot down to one of them as well. It is very important to not do this until the piece is leather hard, as the clay will warp as it dries. I even put a large rubber band around the outside of each piece to keep it as aligned as possible as they finished drying. Once dry, I cleaned the pieces up with synthetic steel wool, keeping in mind there should be absolutely no rough spots to catch on the yarn. I then bisque fired them to Cone 06.

I had thought a lot about the glazing for these pieces. they reminded me of traditional kimono for some reason, with the textured brocades of the obi and the juxtaposition of non-analogous colors. I decided to finish them with two overlapping glazes, using the Amaco Potter's Choice Temmoku first and then overlaying with more brightly-colored selections from the same series, including Indigo Float, Lustrous Jade, Vert Lustre, Ironstone and Textured Turquoise. I was very pleased with the results, as the glazes and glazing technique further enhanced the lace texture.

These pieces work great for finer-textured fibers, including silk and cotton blends. I'm going to make some larger ones for chunky wool blends next!

Large Prairie Dock Leaf Sculpture

A couple of years ago, I purchased, among other things, some Silphium terebinthinaceum (Prairie Dock) to include in my native plant garden. Prairie Dock is a member of the Rosinweeds, including such varied, but invariably gigantic, species as Cup Plant (Silphium perfoliatum), Compass Plant (Silphium laciniatum) and the name species, Rosinweed (Silphium integrifolium). These are all planted side by side in my garden so visitors can see both their similarities and differences - their common height (close to or over nine feet, oftentimes), their beautiful yellow flowers, their differing foliage form and arrangement.

They've also been a consistent source of inspiration for my pottery. In 2011, I collected a number of leaves from my (and a friend's) Cup Plants as well as small leaves from my young Prairie Dock in order to create a series of rather large cupped leaves, using varying stains for the upper faces and many of the warm earth-tone glazes from my repertoire. Like the sunflower leaves I had worked with that season, they had thick midribs which I reinforced with various designs in applied clay. They were as much sculptures in their own right as usable serving pieces - and, personally, I would have preferred them to have been appreciated simply for their botanical beauty.

Prairie Dock is characterized by a basal rosette of large - sometimes three-feet long! - paddle-shaped leaves from which arise the tall, nearly naked, flower stems. It was these larger leaves - perhaps not three feet long, but as long as my material would permit - that I hoped to use in my work to create some really outstanding pieces, if only due to their very size. It's always rewarding to share some of these larger leaf pieces with my audience, informing them in the process that the leaf was actually ten to twelve percent larger when the fabrication process began, that the piece has actually shrunk quite a bit as it has dried and then been both bisque and glaze fired.

In 2012, I harvested a couple of large leaves and made two pieces. I followed my typical process of rolling out a fairly thick slab, removing the texture, rolling in the (in this case, fresh) leaf and cutting it out with a sharp tool. I then carefully flipped it over on the canvas and designed and applied the decoration at the base of the mid-rib. I have found a series of spiraled arabesques (made using clay extruded from a Kemper Clay Gun with a round die) is both highly functional for this purpose - the support is strengthened as their arrangement "knits" everything together, both visually and structurally - but is also a popular motif with many of my clients.

In this case, I took a long coil and made a small spiral at the far end of the overall supporting design and carried it out to the very tip of the leaf as an additional flourish. One dried too quickly and I was unable to rescue the leaf for a second attempt. The piece I thought would not survive - as I had arranged it in the mold asymmetrically, putting additional stresses on the material - actually made it through the bisque firing in one piece.

I finished the piece by staining the top with Woodland Mason Stain and glazing the bottom and edges with Amaco's Potter's Choice Ancient Jasper. Although the color palette for this glaze is very similar to that of the Ironstone glaze from the same series, the results is startlingly different - it really does have the mottled appearance of a piece of polished jasper. Altogether, it makes for a beautiful and unique piece that is a interesting when viewed from the bottom as from the top. It would be quite effective displayed on a glass-topped table with a mirror in the base, so as to enjoy both faces at the same time! 

I harvested the remaining dried Prairie Dock leaves at the end of the season in Fall 2012. I hope to have time to work with them some more this winter.

Sunflower Leaf Seder Plate

Large Sunflower Leaf Seder Plate

Some time ago I posted about the Lace Crosses I had been asked to make, which eventually evolved into Lace Stars of David. With moderate success for both of these designs, my friend Sharon suggested I try my hand at making a seder plate.

For those who don't know (and I didn't, particularly), the Seder is the ritual meal that marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. The feast involves the retelling of the Jewish people's escape from oppression under Egypt's Pharaoh, which is found in the Book of Exodus. The Seder itself honors the command to retell the story as found at Exodus 13:8: "You shall tell your child on that day, saying,'It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.'" Customs associated with the seder include the drinking of a prescribed amount of wine, eating matza (unleavened bread), partaking of various symbolic foods arranged on a Passover Seder Plate and reclining in celebration of freedom from oppression. The Passover Seder is celebrated in essentially the same manner by Jews throughout the world.

The Seder Plate itself consists of a plate with six compartments or dishes to hold the six symbolic foods: Maror and chazaret, the bitter herbs to symbolize the bitterness of slavery; charoset, a sweet, brown mixture made from chopped nuts, grated apples, cinnamon and sweet red wine to symbolize the mortar used by the Jewish slaves to build the storehouses of Egypt; karpas, a vegetable other than the bitter herbs (usually parsley, celery or boiled potato) dipped in salt water (to symbolize tears) mirroring the pain felt by the slaves in Egypt; z'roa, the only item of meat on the Seder Plate, usually a roasted lamb or goat shankbone or chicken wing, symbolizing the Pesach sacrifice; and beitzah, a hard-boiled egg, symbolizing the festival sacrifice which also commemorates the mourning associated with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.

Sharon felt that my large sunflower leaves could be adapted to be used as a Seder Plate, with six small sunflower leaves as the individual dishes. I had already fabricated over 50 small sunflower leaves in the Fall of 2012, having collected them just before the frost killed them all off. I had made each one with a small arabesque at the base of the stem to reinforce that vulnerable area and provide a bit of decoration. They had been sitting for several weeks as I prepared for the 3rd Annual Black Cat Pottery Holiday Open House in early December.

Large Sunflower Leaf Seder Plate - Detail of Underside

After that event, I decided to try out Sharon's idea. I had made a sunflower leaf but it had cracked while drying. I carefully removed the original leaf, re-registered the parts and laid them on moist newsprint, sprayed it with water and covered it with more moist newsprint to rehydrate. Meanwhile, I rolled out a fairly thick clay slab, smoothing away the canvas texture on one side. Once the leaf was flexible, I carefully dried it off and laid it on the clay, rolling it in with my big rolling pin. After I carefully cut it out with a very sharp cutting tool, I flipped it over to apply the decoration to the back.

Because the main veins of these leaves are so large, it is essential that they be reinforced; otherwise, they will crack - if not in drying or during the bisque firing, certainly in the glaze firing. So, I fabricate spiraling arabesques of clay using my Kemper Klay Gun with a round die. (I had forgotten about the arabesques on the small sunflower leaves.) I made a series of differently-sized spirals and arranged them, scoring and slipping the underlying surface, in a random yet pleasing array. I added two little outliers to make it more interesting. I carefully flipped the piece over and rolled it onto the large rolling pin and, holding the pin in place in relation to the handles, carefully unrolled the clay slab into a mold, where I gently pressed it in, careful not to distort the underlying design.

Large Sunflower Leaf Seder Plate - Underside

I put the piece in a corner and forgot about it for a few days. When it was dried enough I removed it from the mold and signed it. When it was completely dry, I carefully cleaned up all the rough edges with synthetic steel wool, then bisque fired slowly. I dug out six small sunflower leaves and prepared to glaze. I had decided to glaze with Amaco's Potter's Choice True Celadon with the three yellow stains (Titanium, Praseodymium and Vanadium) as a complement.

Imagine my surprise when I realized, having stained and waxed the leaves' upper surfaces, that the shape of the arabesques on all seven pieces were exactly the same! I finished glazing the pieces and fired them - again, slowly - upside down on clean posts so they would be completely resolved.

When I pulled them out of the kiln, I was delighted. Of course, I really didn't know if they were going to meet Sharon's expectations. I was relieved (and a bit pleased) to find, when I talked to her later, that the piece exceeded even her high expectations. So, I've already started on three more - I only have three leaves left from the harvest, which I have carefully stored against the day.... And I have many, many more ideas for Seder Plates!

2012: The Year in Review

It seemed to me a good thing to recap the events of the last 366 days - a lot has happened and I have many people to thank. I know I'll miss some of you; if I have, my apologies - I know there are folks out there who have helped me in ways of which I'm completely unaware but I am nonetheless grateful for all you've done to help make 2012 a successful year for Black Cat Pottery.

Our events this year started out slowly (it's never helpful when we have mizzly, drizzly weather for our Clematis Pruning Workshop in April) but we had outstanding turnouts for our Summer Garden Tour - 150 people! - and our Holiday Open House. Friends Theresa Dearhamer, Sharon Bass and Catherine Dumke-Derbyshire lent essential assistance in making these events the success they were, as well as the other participating artists - Chris Hopp, Don Schulte, Tim Hanks, Glenda Hopp, Karen Hooper and Bob McGowan.

I decided pretty early in the year to start focusing more on getting my work into galleries and shops throughout the state of Michigan, with an eye to growing the wholesale/consignment side of my business. I took a lot of road trips - often with my friend Theresa Dearhamer (during a recent break to take in the Barbra Streisand/Seth Rogan flick The Guilt Trip, we concurred that the two of us would not make it through an eight-day cross-country odyssey). We made two trips through the center of the state up to the Leelanau Peninsula and then up into the Upper Peninsula, as far north as Copper Harbor. (I believe that's as far north as you can go and still be on land in Michigan, except for Isle Royale.) I also took several trips on my own, including points west and east of Detroit. As a result of these efforts, I was able to add 14 new accounts.

As I've said, I've had a lot of help doing this. Many friends have been instrumental in recommending galleries to me or recommending me to galleries, including (but not limited to and in no particular order) Andrew Lathrup, Renate Favour, Melanie Boyle, Janine Bauchat, Joyce Diemond-Mcgowan Janicki, Chris Hopp and Chelsea Martin, Blue Dingman, Cleve Hayes, Glenda Hopp, Karen Hooper, Jackie McMahon, Trish Hacker-Henig, Lambro Niforos, Julie and Bob Peterson, Theresa Shepherd and Sharon Bass. And the suggestions keep rolling in. Not all of them are "right" for the direction I'm taking with my work but I have diligently checked out each and every one (in person if possible). Through these suggestions - and the faith these and other folks have had in my work - I was able to exceed my 2012 wholesale/consignment goal.

It hasn't all been good news. Some relationships were not sufficiently productive; sometimes getting the right "fit" is tough, regardless of how hard the artist and business owner work together to make it happen. Other opportunities disappeared due to the ongoing difficult economy. Probably the most disappointing development for me in 2012 is the closing of Firebrick Gallery and Pottery Studio in Rochester, a business with which I had had a fruitful professional and personal relationship for many years.

Owner Christine Laikind, like so many businesses, was hit hard by the economic downturn, coupled with an eight-month, wall-to-wall renovation of Main Street. Christine is a marketing genius - partnering with other businesses in the area for art openings and charitable causes (her Empty Bowls Fundraiser was a yearly highlight). She also provided eclectic and varied creative opportunities, from painting workshops to studio memberships. We were able to put together a series of very successful pottery workshops in the fall of 2012 which brought in record enrollments and we were planning an additional series for 2013.

Although those opportunities will no longer exist for us in Rochester, Christine and I are still working together to keep the energy going at Black Cat Pottery. We are looking forward to doing some printing workshops in conjunction with the two annual Garden Tours (June 1 and August 17, 2013) as well as stand-alone pottery workshops. If you were interested in doing a Beer Stein Party with Christine - don't give up! We're going to try to make that happen, if folks are interested.

So, the lesson for 2013: There is a silver lining to every cloud. I am excited about developing more programming here at Black Cat Pottery, in addition to our annual Pruning Workshop, Garden Tours and Holiday Open House. I will be doing much, much more on my Etsy shop - look for us there at TheBlackCatPottery. If you see something you like - or don't see something you'd like to see there - let us know!

I'll also have an article on non-vining Clematis in Michigan Gardener this year as well as an article on native plants in that same publication in 2014 - and I'm still working on my adult fairytale, The Raccoon's Bride. I will also be speaking on the restoration of a typical urban lot at the upcoming Wildflower Association of Michigan conference at Michigan State University in March (where I'll also be sharing Black Cat Pottery and Notable Greetings notecards and prints), as well as various other speaking engagements (and even the occasional conference) throughout the state. Check the calendar to the left for current information.

If all goes well, I'll be at Royal Oak Clay, Glass and Metal in June and Art and Sole in Grosse Pointe come September. If you miss me at one of those events, I'm always happy to meet with customers at the studio. And I'm hoping to push the boundaries and work on getting my work out of state. So, if you know of a really great gallery or shop where you'd like to see some Black Cat Pottery - in Michigan or points beyond, let me know!

Thank you so much for your support in 2012 and best to you all for 2013!

Green Man: Winter

Green Man - Winter: Gene Pluhar

I think most of us have heard (or, perhaps, even used) the phrase "Old Man Winter". While the face I used for Winter in my Green Man/Woman series is not of what I would call and "old man", it is definitely the face of an "older" person, a quality further conveyed by the face's beard. I was able to acquire a facial cast of my first pottery teacher, Gene Pluhar, who - at the time (and likely still the case now, although I'm not certain) - had a full beard and mustache. I had originally planned to use his face for a wall fountain idea I had (and may someday return to) featuring a face of Poseidon, Greek god of the sea. Using his face for Winter was a logical progression.

I used a couple of techniques to convey the sense of the coldest season in this mask. No ladybugs, obviously, and instead of having no acorns or immature or ripe acorns, I made some acorn caps to add to the tips of the three "branches". I made a small acorn nut, which I then fired and keep in a safe place (it's very easy to misplace) and I form the caps over it, as the wet clay will not stick to the still-porous bisque-fired "nut". The caps are carefully attached (remembering they can easily collapse if pinched too tightly) as the full acorns were attached in the Summer and Autumn masks, by gently scoring one section of the cap, slipping it and then attaching it securely.

Detail of acorn caps

When deciding where the branches go on all of these faces, I often use the mask's brow as a guide, using the branch to "echo" the eyebrow or the brow ridge. I usually only use two branches in these compositions - one on either side of the face, one of them arching up over the eyes onto the forehead - but because there are no leaves to "fill in" the Winter composition and it looks excessively bare with only two main branches, I decided to include an additional "sub-branch" to fill in some space high on the forehead. The placement of the branches in relation to the hanging holes is more critical in this design, as there are no leaves to further mask them; in this case, I used a cluster of acorn caps to help conceal the hanging hole and wire on the left side of the face, while a branch was sufficient on the right.

I also wanted to create the sense of "frostiness" on the face, including the facial hair (beard, mustache, eyebrows) and the upper surfaces of the branches and caps (frost usually hits the top side of an object first). In the first few iterations, I used Amaco Sierra High Fire Glaze White, but was not entirely satisfied with the results - they weren't quite "frosty" enough. In working with Crackle White raku glaze, I had learned that most white glazes are not at all opaque but are, rather, translucent, so that they pick up some of the color of the underlying clay body. Because I was using a reddish clay body (to give the faces some natural warmth), the white really wasn't coming up "white" but kind of pinkish.

Detail of eyebrow and branch

My eventual solution was to brush white stoneware slip on the places I would want to be frost after finishing fabricating the piece before it was dry. The downside of this is I must make some of my glazing decisions before the piece is even bisque fired, but it has worked well: the "frosty" areas actually look pretty white and... frosty!

Once again, I use Burnt Umber to stain the branch and caps. I am very careful in applying and sponging it off so as not to get it on the "frosted" portions; it's nearly impossible to remove all stray oxide should that occur, thereby minimizing the impact of the "frosting". (Additional white slip cannot be successfully applied to the piece after bisque firing - it will not adhere.) As with the other masks in this series, this piece can be glaze-fired on a raw, untreated shelf, as there is no glaze near the bottom edge to vitrify.

Although it took a few years and several experiments to get this design "right", I've been very happy with my solution to the "frostiness" issue and, having resolved that issue satisfactorily, I later went on to create one piece incorporating aspects of all four seasons.

Green Woman: Autumn

Green Woman - Autumn: Cheryl M. English

Although I seldom use my face in my work, I decided to use it for the "Autumn" mask in the Green Man/ Woman series because the scale is similar to that of the face used for Spring (my friend Tia Nero) and I really like the Fall palette of colors - I am definitely a "Fall" in terms of my coloring, so I suppose there's a certain degree of synchronicity at work here as well.

One issue with the mold for my face - it has deteriorated a lot in the last 15-plus years and I can't make another. In that time, I have developed a sufficiently severe case of asthma that I am no longer comfortable having my entire face encased in plaster, forcing me to breathe solely through two straws inserted in my nose, although I'm entirely capable of breathing exclusively through my nose under "normal" circumstances. My friend Catherine tried twice to make a new cast and, after our second attempt, swore she was never going through that again! The cast I have is the cast I have, despite its decline; I've simply learned some strategies to minimize the evidence of its deterioration.

Detail of "knot" at base of chin

For the Autumn mask in the Green Man/Woman series, I decided to use Red Oak (Quercus rubra) leaves, to play on their relatively intense Fall color. I follow my general routine in preparing the mask in terms of casting, cleaning up and making holes for hanging the mask once complete. You'll notice on a lot of these that the portion of the mask above the forehead is often roughly broken or torn, in keeping with the naturalistic aesthetic I follow in much of my work, in which I try not to "overwork" the clay; I am, however, very careful to make sure the sides of the face and the chin are trimmed in such a way that they should lay roughly flat against the wall (or other surface).

I prepare the branches, rolling out coils and adding texture, then affixing them to the mask with a "knot" where they are joined under the chin. I find the pad of my thumb or one of my fingers is effective in not only making the final "join" for this step but also make for a very naturalistic appearance; I have often been asked how I put the "wood" on the clay, so I am successfully conveying the "idea" of an actual wooden branch in the pieces in which I use this technique. (Some folks react to the manner in which I drape my clay in some designs by thinking I must be working with leather!)

Detail of acorns

I select, fabricate and apply the leaves as in the other Green Man/Woman masks, using Red Oak leaves I easily find in my Detroit neighborhood. (Quercus rubra was one of the five trees the city used as street trees before the onslaught of the Emerald Ash Borer essentially extirpated all the ash trees in the city; now they are planting a greater variety of trees in a more random arrangement, rather than having whole streets plante with an arboricultural monoculture.) These can be a little tough to work with in the glazing process with their pointed lobes but I think, between their form and color I use to stain them, that they make an excellent contrast to the White Oak (Quercus alba) and Swamp White Oak (Quercus bicolor) leaves I use for Spring and Summer (respectively).

For the acorns, I use the same process as I use for the "immature acorns" I make for the Summer mask, just making the actual nut a bit larger to convey its maturity and proximity to ripeness. The acorns are plump and the caps don't fold down around the "nut" as much in the Summer acorns. They are fabricated and attached in exactly the same manner, just using more clay for the "nut". 

Detail of ladybug

I also usually include a ladybug on these pieces as the ladybugs are still active well into the Autumn. I also really like the contrast between the glossy glaze I use for the ladybug and the matte finish on the rest of thee pieces, including the untouched clay of the faces, which can show every "blemish" and "imperfection", which I think only serves to make these pieces even more visually interesting. I do admit to following some of the 17th century in placing the ladybug, such that it fulfills the role of a strategically placed "beauty mark".

Once the piece is bisque fired, I finish as with the other masks, using Hazelnut Mason Stain instead of Spring Green or Green-Ivy on the leaves. I like the warm reddish quality to this stain, which makes a great complement to the greens of Spring and Summer and the even more subdued palette I use for the final, Winter, mask in the series.

Libation Bowl

Spiral Libation Bowl

Just as I had had a table made by a welder I used to know, he had also made a Large Bird Bowl stand. The initial design he came up with consisted of a tripod formed from slightly bent stock (so it would look more organic) with curled feet. (The curled feet minimize the risk of damage to the surface on which the piece rests.) Subsequent designs were altered to more completely complement my Large Bird Bowl designs, leaving this stand to languish.

I decided this year to design a bowl specifically for this stand, incorporating spiral elements to complement the curved feet. This was an offshoot of my "Starry Night" Deluxe Sunflower design, translated and adapted to a new format.

Making these large bowls can be challenging. One key is to make sure it is consistently thick enough to minimize risk of warping through the drying and firing processes. It is also helpful to allow it to dry as slowly as possible to reduce the chances of cracking - I sometimes cover these pieces or was them, as appropriate, to make sure the clay has the opportunity to shrink consistently.

Detail of Spirals and Circle Cut-outs

Once I had fabricated the main bowl in the mold, I used my Kemper Klay Gun with the half-round die to make the "spirals" to decorate the inside of the bowl. (I use the triangular die to make the spirals on the "Starry Night" sunflowers.) I have discovered the best way to obtain long, continuous sections of extruded clay is to point the Klay Gun downwards; this way, there is less stress on the clay so it is less likely to break off and will be less inclined to spiral on its own, making it easier to manipulate.

Spiral Libation Bowl with Stand

I do not score the inside of the bowl because I don't really know how the spirals will be arranged in advance but I do slip it thoroughly - this way, I can nudge the pieces of clay making up the spirals around to adjust the curves to my satisfaction. I attach the wider base of the half-circle section to the bowl and gently curve them around, making large and small loops while retaining an undecorated area of consistent width around the rim of the basin.

Once all of the spirals are finished, I roll out a thin slab of clay and, using a half-inch round Kemper Klay Kutter, I cut out a number of circles, which I then score, slip and attach in the centers of the spirals and other interstices in the design, as with the "Starry Night" sunflowers, to add the final touch to the composition. The piece is allowed to dry slowly until leather hard, then removed from the mold and allowed to slowly dry until bone dry. I sand the form with synthetic steel wool, then fire slowly to Cone 06.

I wanted to combine a metallic finish with a more conventional glaze selection so, after thoroughly rinsing the piece to remove any dust, I first brushed on three coats of Amaco Potter's Choice Saturation Metallic on all of the spirals and flat circles making up the design in the basin. After these were completely dry, I brushed on a coat of wax resist. Once this had thoroughly dried - I find it best to wait six hours after application for optimal results, I poured Amaco's Potter's Choice Indigo Float over the entire piece, dabbing off the beaded-up glaze from the spirals and flat circles. I then fired it slowly to Cone 6 on three large stilts spaced around the center to minimize warping. (Placing one large stilt at the center doesn't seem to work very well on these large pieces, resulting in unfortunate and inconsistent warping of the pieces.) I could have avoided using stilts if I had waxed the bottom of the piece but, as I intended it to go into a stand such that the bottom would be visible, I opted to glaze the entire basin.

Dora assists

Once fired, I always allow kilns holding large pieces of this type to cool down below 200 degrees before even popping them open, thereby (theoretically) reducing the risk of fracturing as a result of thermal shock. (The kiln can be vented immediately after the firing is completed.) Once completely cooled, I use a Dremel to grind down the stilt marks.

Dora generously assisted us in shooting the Spiral Libation Bowl when we finally got around to photographing it. The piece actually sold shortly thereafter at my 2012 Holiday Open House, albeit with a different stand - so I guess I'll be making another one soon!