Ceramic fish rotisserie

Saw this amazing contraption in the Nantes History Museum - a three-legged ceramic oven with a rotisserie rod, complete with crank handle, dating from 1901.

I'm not sure whether a fire heated the oven from below - perhaps it sat on embers - or maybe hot charcoal sat in the base beneath the fish.

Cornwall Slate Circle - Richard Long

British artist Richard Long's work is about his relationship to nature. This stone circle in an entrance hall of Chambord Chateau (France) makes me think of Stonehenge and crop circles.

I've included a second photo below to give an idea of scale.

See more at his website, http://www.richardlong.org

Shell pot, Sevres Ceramics Museum

Sevres porcelain lidded pot in the form of a shell. 

Sevres was a centre of porcelain production, and today the museum and its galleries showcase the best of the works made there;  historical ceramics; and art ceramics to the present day.

Sevres Ceramics Museum

Pot with snake handle & spout

I saw this amazing richly decorated vessel at Sevres Ceramics Museum, just outside Paris.

Primitive sculpture

This primitive sculpture looks like the skeletal remains of a prehistoric lizard-like creature. The intricate cutting and toothed carving was probably done with stone tools, yet the object has delicacy and balance.

Bird head pot - Joan Miro

Joan Miro often combined different materials in his sculptural work.

 http://fundaciomiro-bcn.org

Miro's ceramics

Catalan artist Joan Miro began making ceramic works in 1945, in his 50's. He, like me, loved the element of chance when fire and clay interact. 

This double-sided stele (1956) is made from stoneware clay with enamel. http://fundaciomiro-bcn.org

Joan Miro, artist extraordinaire

Joan Miro, who ded in 1983 aged 90, is one of my favourite artists. 

This Spanish (Catalan) Surrealist artist worked across many fields, from painting to collage to tapestry to ceramic to metal sculpture, and his ideas were radical for the times. He declared "an assassination of painting", and rejected the conventional painting style. 

His minimalist works have a dream-like quality, with small elements in vast space.

Seen at the Miro Foundation, Barcelona - http://www.fundaciomiro-bcn.org/

Black & white porcelain - Heather Bell

These slipcast porcelain vessels have inlaid black & white panels. They are unglazed, but polished after bisc firing, and again after firing to 1260 degrees Celsius, with fine grade wet & dry sandpaper to give a velvety surface.

Diamond pattern stone wall

Diagonally built rock wall in Korea – it looked very old, but its diamond pattern, from the unusual stacking of the stone blocks, made it stand out.

Metal sculpture in Sydney's Botanic Gardens

I saw this sculpture in Sydney’s botanic gardens – it looks like a cactus skeleton, with its delicate tracery of  filigree metal – ideal for the dry garden.

I looked, but couldn’t find the artist’s name.

Porcelain pod flasks - Heather Bell

These bottles with stoppers are small enough to wear as pendants. They're made from porcelain: textured, stained,  polished, fired and repolished, then fitted with stoppers.

People are often surprised that they're hollow as they look like smooth, worn river pebbles.

Lake Wainamu at Te Henga/Bethell's Beach

An amazing place - deep black ironsand dunes behind Te Henga/Bethell's Beach enclose a fresh water lake (in the distance) and this river which carries the lake run-off to the sea - intense greens in the bush, purple-blues in the water, and subtle shades of charcoal grey.

Below - patterns in the sand crust. There was also an area of sand with scattered pieces of stone which looked like prehistoric  tools  - does anyone know about the human history of this area?

Porcelain wave bowl - Heather Bell

Although I generally choose to hand-build my work - I prefer the asymmetry of hand-built creations to the regularity of thrown pots - this was one throwing exercise whose results I still enjoy. 

I threw then turned the bowl, leaving quite a thick wall at the base.  Then I painted a layer of resist onto the bone dry clay, and eroded the non-resisted surface by sponging. It's easy to go too far - seeing daylight through a hole in the wall is one indicator; but also if the clay gets too thin, the weight of the remaining clay above can cause it to distort or collapse during firing - in what's called the pyroplastic stage.

 This piece is clear glazed, and overhead lighting shows its translucency.

Smiling rock

Friendly-looking rock erosion features seen at Scottish Rocks, Booderee National Park on Australia's New South Wales coast

Frangipani dish - stoneware paperclay

This 4-lobed dish is based on a common motif in Pacific art: the stylised frangipani flower. It's made from stoneware paperclay, glazed on the inside, with brushed-back oxide on the outside of one, bronze manganese-based glaze on the other; and fired to 1220 degrees Celsius.

These dishes look good wall-hung in a group to form patterns, and are useful for serving different foods together without the foods mixing.

One I made cracked in the glaze firing - I think the clay slab was rolled out too thinly, but the slightly thicker slabs were fine.

Jasper, R.I.P.

Alas my Jasper didn't survive his last firing - he was lovingly formed of paperclay over a wire armature, and had the fierce personality of an alley tomcat - full of himself and scared of nothing. However, his wire skeleton couldn't stand 1180 degrees Celsius. I opened the kiln to see him in pieces. I've kept them though, and he has several lives left, so he might appear here again.

Korean bottle

This delicate green celadon lobed bottle in the National Museum of Korea in Seoul is National Treasure no. 94, from the Goryeo Period, reportedly found in King Injong's tomb.

Patchwork house, Great Barrier Island

 This house hit me in the eye when I saw it from the road on Great Barrier Island. I had to stop and take a photo. Islanders are famous for their ingenuity - freighting materials from Auckland is costly, so everything that can be is reused and recycled.

Great Barrier Island from the air

Sweet Sixteen - Titirangi Potters' 16th annual exhibition

Recent publicity for Titirangi Potters' 16th annual members' show in Western Leader - this interview was more fun than we expected.

Western Leader reporter Vanita Prasad was coming to chat about the Titirangi Potters' members' show Sweet Sixteen. in Lopdell House's Upstairs Gallery, and to film potters at work for the Western Leader's new Internet edition.

After an initial chat we suggested to Vanita that she have a go on the wheel. She jumped at the chance, saying that she's always wanted to try it. Turned out she was a natural - with a little tuition (and plenty of advice from three directions) she managed to centre a ball of clay, and then proceeded to open it up and create a very creditable pot.

Western Leader article 

Pictured: Karen, Heather, Annie.

Naked raku mobile - Heather Bell

 

Raku can be exhilarating when it works - these pieces with naked raku (see Introspective Meringue post below for description) on one side and carbonised clay on the other worked beautifully, with a tracery of smoke patterns left on the white body when the  slip and glaze were removed.

Suspending the elements gives interesting wall shadows, which constantly change as they rotate. This group was in Lopdell House's  Upstairs Gallery in Titirangi last October for the Titirangi Potters' 15th annual members exhibition. I have another, larger group (Birds and other tricks of the light) on show at the moment at NorthArt gallery in Northcote, Auckland.

Artefact Teapot - Lana Wilson

 

Lana Wilson's fluid, draped, oxide-washed stoneware teapot, seen in the Wallace Arts Trust  collection, Pah Homestead, Auckland, New Zealand. 

I imagine tea from this pot would have a dark smoky flavour, and I'd love to see that arching spout send a jet of amber tea into a cup across the table.

Taihu rock

Taihu rock from Lake Tai in the Lower Yangze Delta, China. These eroded rocks appear in Chinese literature and painting, and are associated with immortality.
Seen in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

Neolithic jar, National Museum of Korea, Seoul

This neolithic jar in the National Museum of Korea, Seoul appealed to me - beautiful yet simple, with perky little lugs for a rope or strap, and still marked by the fire that turned it into enduring ceramic.

Curl - Heather Bell

Today, one of my pots - coiled, with layers of white terra sigillata, burnished before once-firing to 1000 degrees Celsius.
I'm thinking about giving this the naked raku treatment(see description below), but after my last disastrous raku experience where 2 large pieces ended up in dozens of pieces, I'm unsure. What do you think?




Naked raku: apply stoneware slip over smooth bisqued clay surface. When dry, apply raku crackle glaze. Fire until glaze is toffee apple-glossy, then remove the hot piece and place on combustible materials, cover & seal - smoke penetrates the glaze crackle lines, and marks the bisqued clay surface. The glaze & slip are then peeled off - soak in water, scrape & scrub - leaving a delicate tracery of smoke crackle lines. I'll post a photo of this effect soon - my pieces using the technique are in NorthArt's current exhibition.

Folded Form by Beate Andersen

This piece by Danish ceramicist Beate Andersen looked as though it was still soft, the curves and decoration were so fluid. World Ceramics Center, Icheon, Korea.

Get Together by Mei-Qun Gu

Humorous teapot by Mei-Qun Gu (China), master teapot maker, in the World Ceramics Center, Icheon, Korea. This was part of a tea-ware display on one floor of this amazing exhibition building devoted to international ceramic works.

Porcelain with blue celadon glaze - Masamichi Yoshikawa

Here are two pieces by Masamichi Yoshikawa (Japan), which I saw on display at the Toyaseum in Icheon, Korea, home of the  biennial Korean International Ceramics Expo.
The glaze is a gorgeous blue celadon, pooled in the creases and corners and dimples of the porcelain.