Thursday, October 4, 2012

Downstream and Going Steady - 89981

89981 - Downstream and Going Steady, 1998, 16" diameter, Three days of firing, three days of cooling.
 One of the things I love most about this platter is that as you look closer and closer, you realize that as the cooling cycle began, and the glazes began to freeze up... they were already in such a thick flowing state, that the underside of the glaze, kept on moving; remaining molten for an incredibly long time. This resulted in an almost pyroclastic flow sort of behavior. There is a skin over the surface of the glaze, that shows wrinkles from the glaze underneath continuing to move as the surface began to chill. Not something you see on pottery glazes.



The puckering from the chilling is pretty obvious in this image.
















3 comments:

cookingwithgas said...

this one makes me think calm - even with all that is going on. Cool, calm, water.
I love the clay color on this one.
We are going to email about that kiln- it might not be until after next week. You know how things are not important unless you are getting ready to do them....working on that next kiln load and getting ready for open house- yikes!

Alex Solla said...

Happy to help with the kiln questions, whenever they happen. If you can shoot from the front of the kiln and maybe give me some idea of what the firing cycles have looked like for the the past 3-4 firings. Especially time from body reduction to peak temp, any holds, reduction measurements etc. Hopefully I can offer something that helps.

As for this platter... I wish I had made more with the bare clay showing. About half way through this project, I started using a new red clay, with about 60% grog and sand... abrasive as heck. Added about 10-20% chopped nylon fiber too. Total bear to throw. I use that term "throw" loosely. Basically pounding out a disk about 2-3 feet in diameter, over an inch thick. Not quite throwing.

Fun stuff. More to come!!

Quietly Otaku said...

Interesting process, I'd imagine it'd be quite tough on the hands! For some reason reminds me of a desert, I think its all the cracks.