Vases

Like I've mentioned before my big vase has been bisque fired and is ready for glazing. I took it outside for a final sanding and air gun blast before starting the glaze work.

I originally wanted an all white vase, which was hard to visualize before bisque firing since it was a gray color. But now that it has been fired it turned into a nice white color. After starting at it for a few minutes I changed my mind and scrapped the all white idea, concluding it was too boring and I would regret the choice.

So I went over to the color choices and decided on three colors I like and use a lot. I also decided to use my typical design of lines and dots which are a theme in some of my other pieces.







An initial sketch showing my design with my color choices. I decided the lines and dots would be the iron red base with glaze E as an accent. The overall color would be U, a favorite yellow glaze I use quite often.















I first drew lines with a pen as a guide before painting the red iron. (The pen will burn off during firing)










I then painted each line on carefully. I used two calligraphy brushes. A normal size and a small detail size.

The glaze went on pretty well but the clay sucks up the color quite fast so I had to re-dip the brush a lot.







After drawing the lines I used the pen again and drew the dots. I used the detail brush to fill in the red iron color.










I didn't want just lines, but a gradation from dark at the bottom to the yellow at the top. So I took a large painting brush and filled in the bottom with wispy brush strokes of red iron.









Last I used glaze E over the red iron to create hopefully more depth and interest at the bottom.










Voila! Hand painted and ready for the top coat. By the time I finished painting the design it was dark outside so I'll spray glaze U over the top this coming Sunday. I hope it turns out well!
















I've gotten bored with cups and plates so I've decided to continue making large vases for the time being with maybe a few small pieces on the side.

This is the sketch of my next project which I've already started on.













I'm using black stone clay and hope for a height of around 70-80cm, but there is one slight set back. I only have 10kilos of clay and I will most likely need more than that to build something this wide and tall. Luckily Arai Sensei is ordering more clay next week, but sadly it won't arrive for another 2-3weeks so I may have to hold off once I run out of clay.

In the meantime here is the vase so far, I've built a few more coils on top of this so it is about 7cm higher now than the picture shows. I'll continue building on it next week.









Until Next time!