Covered jar, stoneware (OL_20_03)

Phil Fishwick

This piece is available Online Only and is not on display at the gallery.

These pieces are all glazed with Shino glazes. This is a glaze developed in Japan and taken in new directions by western potters. It is a glaze that must be fired in a reduction atmosphere (oxygen is cut back during the firing forcing the fire to look for it elsewhere to complete combustion - it finds it in iron - Fe2O3). Shinos love iron and they develop beautiful golds, reds oranges and browns when they find it. The two Slab Wall Plates (OL-20-04 and 05) exploit this affection for iron; I have painted an iron rich slip (liquid clay) in the center of each, covered this with sodium silicate which forms a glass like coating when it dries, and then stretched the clay so it cracks like mud in a wadi during the dry season.

Rabbit Jar (OL-20-01) and Covered Jar (OL-20-03 & 06) have incised patterns cut into the clay which are accentuated by the shino glaze. The darker areas on 03 & 06 are dustings of wood ash applied to the glaze.

Covered Jar (OL-20-02) and Basket Vase (OL- 20-10) have a different shino glaze. Although still getting their coloring mostly from iron, these pieces have a more lustrous finish. Both of these forms have been manipulated; while still relatively soft the clay has been pushed in and out creating bulging and recessed linear motifs which are then accented by stamped and impressed designs. Basket Vase (OL-20-10) is one of my favorite forms, and I have found myself returning to it over and over during the years. This one is more vertical than most and I plan to play with this aspect of the form more in the future.