Pots for a gentleman...

As a bonsai potter, making commissioned pieces for customers can be a challenging, yet rewarding way to stay afloat between shows. I thought I would share a few lines here in the blogosphere of my experience with this last custom order of pots...

The client chose a couple of designs from my web page and added unique dimensions to fit his trees. The first pot is an oval of medium width with rope feet and trim. The second is a hard edged design with  similar width and depth in its interior.

Here are some shots of me working on some of the different stages of construction...

wedging the clay to prepare for throwing

centering and opening up to form the walls on the oval

cutting slabs for the rectangle

Well, here is how the pots turned out. I was quite pleased with the subtle character of each piece.  By now they are enjoying their new digs up in the northeast, probably awaiting a bit of spring fever!

The hard edged rectangle was styled from one of the pieces still on my website. It was constructed entirely from slabs.

Both pots have the same glaze; one that features a lot of visual interest when fired in a reduced atmosphere in my kiln.

The client told me he was very pleased with his latest shipment and I am glad my pots have found a happy home!

Waves of Expression?

I absolutely LOVE learning and developing new techniques. This last month I have been doing some experimenting on a new method that I find rather addicting.  It creates lines and patterns and gives great highlight to form and provides areas for holding glaze.  I tried it on several pots, simple accents, kusamono and some bonsai containers in glazed and unglazed pieces.

Here is another example in a smallish round, well suited for kusamono....

I would like to developing this style a bit more, especially for kusamono forms. For a bonsai pot, I tried some unglazed forms, like this one best suited for a rugged pine.

Time will tell if the bonsai crowd enjoys this particular surface treatment, but in the meantime, at least I can have some fun, keepin' it fresh! 

Cheers!

December's Chill

I never like having to wait to fire pots.  When your pieces are ready, and you have enough to fill your kiln, it is too hard to wait! I mean, for me, one of the most satisfying aspects to being a potter is getting to see them finished.

This month is, as usual, the busiest time of the year.  Several important things kept me busy with school, and, well, the pots couldn't get fired. When I do a firing, it takes a full 24 hours including candling, firing, and a back firing slow cool, so, I guess it just kept being put off.

Anyway, here are some from the group of 34 that I chose to share....

Here is a shohin sized oval in a shimmering green glaze-

This primitive style pot below could be used for kusamono, (in Japanese this means 'grass thing'  I actually made a smaller one too, in the same style..

This medium sized oval below has very subtle glaze that is very sensitive to temperature and atmosphere. Even the slightest amount of reduction gives the copper a pinkish cast.  The crystals come out in the firing down slow cool...

This last pot uses a thin application of a glaze that promotes blue crystals from copper.  I put in some throwing rings to hold the glaze and highlight some texture...

and oh the firing...

For my potheads...

I had a bit of a time evening out the top and bottom of the kiln. The bottom was at least a full cone's cooler than the top.  Usually, when I fire in reduction, I just close up the top damper, with my eye on my oxyprobe, to put in a little more heat down lower in the kiln.  That worked o.k. for a while, but it was complicated because I still wanted to keep a somewhat oxidizing atmosphere throughout the firing. I opened up the bottom peeps and that helped too, but by the time the cool down started the top was already ^8 at 3:00 (my end target). So, when I tried a final soak with the top port slightly covered (oxyprobe reading .02-.03) there was not enough wiggle room in temps to allow the bottom ^8 to fall.

I suppose I could have stayed up longer to find the sweet spot which would have allowed the bottom to come up, but it was getting quite late, and I wanted to start the slow cool. 

Well thanks for taking time for let me ramble. I am just glad to finally get this load done and fired so I can have them ready for the KAWA Joy of Bonsai convention next month. Come and see me!

Now, does anyone wish to place bets on how long it will take me to get this load priced and updated on my website?

Beauty and the Beast

September came and went and between keeping up with my teaching job and my priorities of family and fatherhood, I somehow managed to put together a large load of pots and fire them this past weekend.  Besides producing 24 bonsai containers, I also tested some 30 or so glazes and measured, recorded and fired them for specific gravity. For those non-potter folk, specific gravity is a measurement ratio of water in a glaze, and its solid components. For kicks I decided to test my new cone 9 and 10 glazes in this firing of a hard cone 7.  I knew that most of these from the test batch were not going to end up on my pots at the lowered temperature, but I wanted to see how they turned out. Believe it or not, one of the glazes actually looks better at the lower temp.

The pot below is glazed with Varigated Slate Blue, fired to a hard cone 7, with 8 at the 3 o'clock position. Cooled VERY SLOWLY, it provides a lovely, satiny finish that in my opinion, serves the form  well...

I also experimented with some expressionistic elements. Being a fan of abstract expressionist painting and sculpture, I started to look for inspiration. In ceramics I looked up some of the works by Paul Soldner, Peter Volkous, and Don Reitz.  These guys are well known for being true champions of experimentation and improvisation. In this pot you can see some playfulness.

Oh, I know it may be a stretch for some to see a tree in this pot, but it is still one of my latest favs...

Who knows, perhaps it will one day hold a literati style pine with great gnarly texture to match? 

I enjoy both of these different styles, and in fact I really enjoy both of them together. Perhaps I should do some more work developing both opposite styles.

 Any comments?

A Glaze to Call My Own?

Here is an ash glaze that I made creating by combining Oak ash and a high iron clay.  On this particular clay it gives a nice yellow color. I enjoy the rivulets from the glaze and the pooling effect, a common feature in many glazes of this particular type.

The recipe is a high fire glaze.  I originally tested it at cone 10, and worked well so I mixed up a large batch and used it on these few pots.  The firing went well, but by accident, the pots were fired much higher than I was shooting for.  Apparently when I was trying to even out the temperature at the peak of firing, I overestimated the amount of time that it would take, and the kiln went well past cone 11. I ended up loosing 6 other pots to the kiln gods. They had over fluxed and the glaze, not this one, ended up fusing to my kiln shelf.  I had to get the ol' hammer out....%#$@(^&%$!!!!!

Surprisingly, this glaze held up, even in the higher temperature.  Here is another example with it on a small oval pot...

Oh well, at least I know now that this glaze has potential to take the heat!!!

A Crescent for KAWA

We got first place, we got first place...right?!? NOT!

 Here is a beautiful Juniper, hand picked by Mike Rogers, in my one of a kind, commissioned crescent pot. I made this after four other attempts, to get it just the right size, right balance, color, and shape. We used it for the Club Night competition this past month at the Bonsai Society of Florida's state convention in Orlando.

A fun, frenzied time was had by all. Amist a blur of dirt, wiring, placement and patience we worked to finish the project, even finishing with time to spare...

...but first place was awarded to the Brevard Club.  

Here  are the Boys of Brevard working diligently to bring order to chaos designing their impressive Ficus Salicifolia/Nerifolia forest on a slab. It was a real stunner.

They are a powerhouse, yes its true...

but look at the concentration in this trio!

Our BSF Convention headliner and judge, Ryan Neil, did a fantastic job with everything at the convention. He really liked our composition and even had a few nice things to say about the pot.

Club members Diane, Mike, Jane, Mike and Louise should be proud of second place. They were a great team!

....and there is always next year...AGAIN!!!

Thanks to Gerry Devane for providing photos-

In the Pursuit of Subtlety

Trees with an aged character can benefit from a pot that has gentle undulations of color or textured elements.  Conversely, a  pot with bold or brash angles and glazes works to suit a younger, more boldly styled tree. In my last round of pots I have been developing the use of glazes that are better fitting to older trees. Here are a few examples.

The use of sprinkled ash from my fire pit brought out some nice blueish hues to this pot. It is still somewhat monochromatic, again better suited to an older tree...

I would say that the depth of such a container makes it more masculine and perhaps others in the realm of bonsai would agree.  By contrast, the pot at the top of the page, with its convex profile and graceful rim, promotes a graceful composition.

There is quite a bit of interplay of blues and blueish green hues in this container. It would be well suited to a bougainvillea,  azalea, or anything with a red magenta flower, among others.

The back side reveals a bit of pitting from an interaction of sprinkled ash with the flame path in my kiln...

Although I am not really sure which side I like better I do know one thing: an effective bonsai artist would choose the side based on the needs of their composition.   To display bonsai for exhibition the whole composition (tree, pot, accent, and movement) should be taken into account. For example, if more visual weight is needed to pull the eyes down, then I would choose the front from the last photo. The eye becomes attracted to the surface quality more than the other side of the pot.

Subtlety is something that can really be developed in bonsai, given the appropriate subject (tree) and the bonsai artist's desire to communicate it.  

I welcome any comments or questions. Thanks for reading!

National Bonsai and Penjing Exhibition

This past May at the National Arboretum in Washington D.C. was the PBA Regional Bonsai and Penjing exhibition and I am very humbled to have been able to make a pot for one of the participants in the show. The show was the creation of the Potomac Bonsai Association which represents a number of bonsai and related clubs of the greater Washington D.C. area.

Here are just a few of the photos from that event that showcased the talent of the exhibition.

From what I can tell here there was much thought given to the placement of each subject. In bonsai and penjing the negative space between each of the elements being presented is of great importance. I would have loved to have seen it in person...

This was a juried show done by the very esteemed American bonsai master Chase Rosade.

Here is the winner of the competition,a beautiful white pine.  I really love the tension that is created by the proportion and placement of that lower branch. Quite lovely!

I hope someday to see this exhibition in person. There were many great works in the exhibit and each of them warrant your viewing pleasure.

Here is a maple that I have a personal interest in...

A closer look...

I am quite thrilled when one of my pots is seen in a show with such caliber as this one. What is even more satisfying is knowing that this tree received an honorable mention. I am very humbled to have made the pot for this participant. 

Fired test tiles...

Here are some of the samples that were fired since my last post. Being so far behind in my posting it seems  unnecessary to go into too much detail about all of them.  I have since been under the gun for my last show and was way too busy to post along the way.

Anyhoo,  for your viewing pleasure, here are some of my little soldiers.

The middle tiles are glazed with a fake ash glaze with my own oak ash glaze dripped on the top.

Here are a few pots that I glazed with that recipe...

Fellow potters can email me for the recipe. It works best on white and tan stoneware the in my opinion. These were fired in my gas kiln in reduction from ^6 to ^8 nicely.

Michelle is working this week on adding new material to my website so if you are interested please stay tuned...

Standardized testing

Selecting good reliable glazes and developing them for use on pots can be quite a task. It takes many trials of different recipes, underlying clay bodies and varying application techniques to get closer to the color and texture being sought.  In making these test tiles, I am hoping to not only learn about the color and texture of each new glaze, but also seek to find interesting nuances within the overlay of other glazes on top of one another. Long gone are the days when I would look for a particular color out of a catalog or brochure and buy a pint and apply three brush coats to dry 06 bisque...

For this round of testing I decided to mix up some medium large batches of MC6 glazes in the 4,000 gram size.  I also mixed up 12 small 100 gram test batches from other sources.  Pancioli and Selsor both have some beautiful reduction glazes that I have long wanted to try.  I also tested an engobe recipe with 6 different variations. Three of those six have xircopax plus, an opacifier, while the other three do not. The variants for color that I used were red iron oxide, black iron oxide, and manganese oxide. I would like to see how the engobe reacts with the glaze above it and the clay body below it.

Ash was used both as stand alone recipes and as dust sprinkled over wet glazes. Not to take any chances I washed my shelves thoroughly.

Here is just one page from my notebook, as I identified each tile, glaze used, and the application of each. These notes are the first draft and I will go back to them and see which tiles warrant further testing. If you look by my mask you can see an old tiles that warranted another test.  My hope is that all this testing will make me a better potter, if not who at least has more choices when choosing just the right color and texture for a particular bonsai tree or companion planting.

I am hoping these guys are not packed too tightly. Only time will tell....

Finished photos coming soon. Please stay tuned!

Teaching pottery at Central Florida Bonsai Club

Our hands were busy last month at my CFBC pot making workshop.  Participants spent time learning about the characteristics of clay and different forming methods to used to create pots.  I must say it was a very fast paced 3 hours, but the amount of learning and productivity that came out of it was certainly worth it.  Here Betsy looks on as Rick takes a short cut with his pinch pot...

Some people give a lot of attention to detail. Here Betsy is using a coil to reinforce a joint in her slab built pot.  She told me once that she used to make pottery years ago.  After watching her work I could tell.  Once a potter always a potter?

Here are some more shots of the slab building process.  In the second to last photo, Zoo Mike used bark to get an interesting texture on his pot.  I am so proud of him!

Paul is very quiet when he works. When you see his pots you will know why.  Such concentration!

Well, I am off to wash off the bisqued pots and get them ready for our glazing class next month. All of the pots make it through the bisque with no problems so I am very happy.  Overall the class went very smoothy, but I should have taken more pictures to share here.  I will try to take more on the 13th when we meet again.

Thanks to all the participants for your patience and support!

A few carefully placed drips...

Experimenting with glazes and overlaying them can be rewarding,  even if the result dosen't always turn  out as expected. I like the look of the Spearmint from M^6 Glazes. Here is contrasts with a single dip of Varigated Blue. The body is Brownstone from Highwater fired to a hard ^5.  I had to use my small 40+ year old electric Jenkins kiln for this load, as I was in a rush to finish some commissioned pieces and didn't want to spend time filling up the bigger Olympic gas kiln. 

Anyhow, I tried some other drips and the results were very different. Here is the same glaze, Spearmint, with a white glaze that I have used before as a highlight, just to give a sense of random interest in the wabi sabi tradition...

Here is the soft corned shohin sized rectantangle.

Because the glaze couldn't slow cool, (it is very hard to do in this kiln), and because it was perhaps too thick an application, the white fades into the main glaze.

I like the way the drips played out in this next pot. 

Being that there is more color variation within the grey and green tones, the drip feels more at home visually. Here is the same glazes with a different clay, a half stoneware and porcelain mix. Because the body is white, the glaze is more bright, less austere.

The drip ran all the way down the pot's side and pooled just before falling onto the shelf. I guess I should consider myself lucky eh?

Well, I will keep working on the perfect drip. I may never achieve it as something perfect, but that should be the point.  If too much time is spent trying to create that which is supposed to appear spontaneous and random, then how can we call it wabi-sabi?

Anyway, thanks for letting me share! 

Testing midrange clays

Here are some tests of three midrange clay bodies. The first (below) is a Red Iron Oxide wash, mixed with  Ferro 3124 and EPK in thirds by volume. I chose three clay bodies, (from left to right) Brownstone, Desert Buff, and Half and Half, all from Highwater. The drip on the left side of each tile is a pure Oak ash, washed and screened mixed with water. 

This is a similar test of washes using ash and MgO, mixed in the same proportions as the test above. The first tile, however is Max's White Raku clay from Axner.

Here are the Highwater Clays again, this time using Bone from Mastering Cone 6 glazes. There is a drip of the MgO wash on the corner of the tiles that works well with the glaze.  All of these tiles were fired to a full cone 7 in heavy reduction.

Well, more testing is on the way. I really like seeing what I can do with these three clay bodies. I think the Half and Half is a sure winner with the Bone glaze, as it brings out a warm hue. I can't wait to use this clay to make some medium to small sized oval bonsai containers.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!