Big serving bowls with decorative rims

I sometimes share things as I start them.  So here are a couple of large bowls that are still drying slowly.

Similar designs - and not plotted out before carving. I continue to just follow what the clay and I want to do while it's happening....the focus on process rather than product.  There're a lot more stages to go through before these are finished!

Cauldrons or big bowls

There it is on the header this week...

A potter friend said the exterior looked like wood, and the interior like water.  So that' it's name, wood and water!

The interior is white satin mixed with Bermuda Green mason stain, and the exterior is amber glaze.

The legs are pretty sturdy but the glaze cracked on the inner edges of each leg, so this will reduce the price, after I add some nice firm glue to make sure the legs stay on.

And here is cauldron number one...finally located photos of it!  All the colors are done with Mayco Stroke & Coat glazes.

Today's quote:

The future is not some place we are going, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made. And the activity of making them changes both the maker and their destination.

JOHN SCHAAR

Five red sunflowers on a bowl

First let me give you my mini-rant.

I believe artists should do their own work.  When beginning, we often copy, or use stencils, or even just "cut and paste" designs we find that please us.

Artists (and craftspeople too) have the job of giving the world beautiful designs.

At some point we artists should be doing totally unique designs...no more using other people's work.

If we were writers, it would be called plagiarizing.  So the next time I frown when another potter has copied a design, used a "commercially produced decal" or duplicated what another artist actually designed, you'll know why.

Now I'll share my recent glazing on large bowls.  I went through my process earlier this year, and it's still pretty much the same.  Check out the February post if you wish.

I still am using Mayco's designer liners to draw free-hand flowers and leaves on the side of my bowl. If I could make smooth enough surfaces, there wouldn't be the bumps in quality of line work.  But this is what I can do at this point in my life.

Then with several brushes, I use Mayco's Stroke & Coat colors to color the flowers...many layers of different colors.

 Final step is to brush on some matt clear glaze over the flowers and leaves.  Then I brush two coats of butter yellow in all the in-between places...with some overlapping of the leaves.  That way (I hope) the leaves will pick up some of the yellow and blend in as well, rather than looking like they were cut and pasted onto the pot.

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This is the first true fall foliage I will admit to seeing...though several weeks ago a friend showed me a red leaf or two on a tree.  But I couldn't resist this pretty maple on the sidewalk.

PS.  Here's the finished product...just out of the glaze kiln, with five red sunflowers on it!