Another Iga Style Hanaire

This is one of Estelle’s Hanaire showing some carbon trapping and the careful use of a spatula on a freshly made piece. This creates an indentation that changes the flow of gas and flame over the pot when it is being fired to give subtle colour changes.

Hanaire with curtain of Ash Glaze

The curtain of ash glaze on this pot comes from the way we were shown to end our firings by burning off some larger pieces of wood on the sill of the front stoking port. With oxidation this last burst of heat burns off any residual ash which runs down the pot giving this curtain effect.

Leaves in Frost No.2

Please don’t ask how I made this image as I have long forgotten. It is another from the series we took for Camera Club competitions. The colour hardly makes it look like a picture of frost.

Leaves in Frost No.1

This is an image from our days doing competition work when we belonged to the Camera Club. I hope our present winter is now over although in the South Island they seem to have had an extended winter this year.

Eared Iga Style Hanaire

This Hanaire really needs to be used with fresh flowers in a traditional Japanese way. It was fired for nine days in our anagama kiln and has a heavy coating of ash and some carbon entrapment to make a very satisfying piece of ceramic work.

Bernard Leach Fluted Bowl

This image was sent to me recently. It was taken at St. Ives where there is now a display of Bernard Leach’s work and the pottery is being restored for visitors. Bernard’s fluting seems to have stared a tradition as his son David made some very beautiful porcelain teapots and his early pupil, Harry Davis, also made some fluted porcelain.

Tree at Iona College

Many trees are now getting their spring coating of leaves which are very lovely but I rather like bare trees in winter when the structure of the tree can be seen. This is the same tree that I showed on my blog on September 17th.

Estelle's Round Tsubo

Estelle loved the challenge of making these round tsubo in a way that did not require any trimming or re-shaping of the finished piece. She would pull up a very even and very tall cylinder and then gradually shape the pot from the inside until it was perfectly round, leaving the base of the cylinder as the base of the round pot. The surface colour is what we called a "curtain of green" which is part of the last half hour of firing and is an oxydised thin curtain of glaze covering all that has happened during the other 200 or so hours of firing that has already taken place.