Saying Good-Bye

62098H - ©1998 Alex Solla - Glaze Tectonics, untitled, 17" diameter

62098H - ©1998 Alex Solla - detail

This week, another beautiful platter sold and will be heading to Maine as soon as we get it boxed up. It is always a bittersweet separation when one of these massive platters sells. On one hand, I am thrilled that someone wants one in their home or office. The sudden cash influx certainly doesn't hurt either. But there is always some part of me that looks at the piece, one last time and realizes that I will likely never see this platter ever again.

In the case of this particular platter, it has some interesting differences that separate it from the rest of the series. For one thing, I was experimenting with a brown slip glaze around the rim. Later in the course of making these, I would only use the dark black slip for the rims. Another thing that makes this platter different from so many of the platters is that there is a rippled texture under the glaze, and due to the transparency of the fluid glaze, you can see what look almost like wave washed shoreline, under the glaze. Since I felt that this effect was so successful in this platter, I made similar efforts on quite a few platters which followed this one. None were anywhere near as successful.

And with that said, I say good-bye and good luck.