Thursday, August 25, 2005

A Few of My Favorites

The teabowl in the top left corner is a great example of a traditionally glazed shino bowl as it is characterized by a thick off-white glaze that has a citron skin texture inside and outside of the form. In addition, the form is not perfectly round, the rim is uneven and the foot was hand carved and irregular, all traits that were highly favored by the Japanese Tea Masters.
The blacks that can be seen are carbon deposits that were trapped inside the molten glaze, a completely random process.
The tea bowl in the upper right hand corner is an Americanized version of a shino glaze. This glaze has been modified to have a smooth melt and exhibits very little pin-holing. I dipped this teabowl in a blue gray slip while the clay bowl was still in the leather hard stage.
The patterned line is a random spot of light carbon trapping and around the top rim specks of gold, almost like gold dust, are trapped within the glaze.
Keep an eye on the blog as I will be posting more photos of individual tea bowls with a brief description of my glaze and decorating process.

Shino Success


I just finished firing 75 shino glazed tea bowls. What a success! In addition to the 75 tea bowls, I also fired 2 coffee mugs (gifts for friends) and about 50 test tiles of more shino glaze recipes. I kept about 60 and took the hammer to the others.

Friday, August 12, 2005

Teapot Flotilla Newest Arrival

The newest addition to jeff's Teapot Flotilla has arrived at homeport.
The 12-inch, 4-1/2 cup capacity teapot was christened "P-Tea-109" on August 11, 2005
Although "P-Tea-109" has officially entered Tea Service, the boat will be making a short return trip to Saggar Fired Boatworks for a minor glaze treatment tuneup.
This tune up is purely cosmetic and will by no means affect any of its formal functions or operations once it returns to the teapot fleet.
The addition of "P-Tea-109" brings the total number of the flotilla to three strong. "Tea-4-2005," a luxury cruise ship whose inspiration came from the "QE2" is expected to join the fleet in the next two weeks.