college journal - july 2021
At the beginning of this month, my focus was on attending Potfest at Compton Verney, Warwickshire. Previously, the only ceramics fair I’d attended had been the Potfest in Hutton-in-the-Forest near Penrith, Cumbria. Going to this event event allowed me to:
get a “feel” for a different event (as tutors have observed to us that the demographics of each event do differ, and that going to multiple ones is the only way to really get a sense of this)
see how different ceramicists display their work for sale — how the layout of stalls can provide a contextual framework for understanding one’s work
take pictures of very well-known maker’s work (notably Eddie Curtis for instance) in person
get a general sense of a wide range of things people were doing, including those whose working methods are very different to mine. (For instance, I was delighted to discover Chu-i Wu’s delightfully expressive figurative work, almost illustrative with its stylised depictions of animals and human forms.)
talk to a few ceramicists whilst buying pieces from them, to ask them a bit more about their working processes, particularly their glazes & firing techniques
My notes from this event are mainly in my sketchbooks, but also overlap onto the established maker studies on my ‘conceptual study’ page.
In mid-July, a second batch of work was fired in the gas kiln, including initial tests of a Hagi glaze and Tom Coleman’s shino, as well as secondary tests of Olson’s and Britt’s shinos. Much of my work after this was evaluating these outcomes. Upon looking at the Coleman shino outcomes with Michaela, I realised that this recipe actually would not be suitable as the crawling action which interested me with it actually meant that if used on the bowls, they would not be food-safe due to the interruption in the glaze surface. As such, I have put aside this glaze recipe for the time being. Moreover, the Hagi was largely disappointing but I still hope that it might work more like I wanted it to if applied more thickly and on much warmer-toned bodies. Results from the Britt shino were quite dramatic but different to how I had expected, possibly in part because this shino was actually meant to be used at cone 6-8 and the high firing was thus too hot for it. Conversely, the dry matt surfaces produced by the Olson shino were a result of the kiln not going hot enough for it, the desired subtle satin-matt finish only emerging at 1300.
For the remainder of this month, I was mainly focused on recording these outcomes and also redrafting my Learning Agreement so that it reflected the final focus I had settle on for the project. I also continued practicing thrown and handbuilt teabowls, using the hopefully warmed-toned Briar Buff stoneware clay, Toasted stoneware, MJ Originale, and Fine Vulcan, in time for a final bisque firing on 30th July.