November 2006 Firing
This work was soda fired in a small wood kiln.
The best piece has to be this jug with a fat loop handle. It just came out perfectly - there are so many places where the fire has picked out and enhanced the details in the form. For example, there is a lovely gold speckling in the tenmoku glaze of the spout. Height 26cm.
Two more larger pieces also came out perfectly. The jug is 28cm high and holds about 6 UK pints, the thistle shaped pot is 22cm high.
I have been working on pieces inspired by Pakenham Water Mill where my father is a volunteer, and where I also get the flour to bake my homemade bread. I'm still digesting the mass of photographs I took there but here are the two designs I have come up with so far. The taller lidded box is 15cm high. The shorter lidded box taken from the two millstones between which the grain in ground is 11cm in diameter.
I have continued to play with the idea of ridges, experimenting with cutting through them to create smooth, concave surfaces. There are lots of influences coming together here - corrugated pipes and cooling fins, shells and growth rings, the human body, ribs, stomach and so on. All these pieces are quite small: between 7 and 14cm in height.
In the same vein, I've also made a plate, diameter 23cm.
Other work also in this firing includes tankard mugs, another vase with a reed pattern and more espresso cups and saucers. See October 2006 for earlier examples.