Ex Ceramica

Migrated from exceramica-old. Currently posting through my backlog of things I've made the past few years until I catch up. Most of my work is either small and delicate or big and weird, with not a lot of middle ground. Some wheel thrown and some handbuilt too!

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Fully assembled and carved! If it makes it through firing this will be a bird bath, and by far the biggest thing I've ever thrown!

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We're throwing big today! 19" tall, and 15" wide.

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Obsessed with this new variation on a pattern I've been carving for a while now. Using two different width tools really makes it pop! It's quite a bit slower to carve but so satisfying.

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Been a little while! I finally finished glazing this piece, and I'm pretty happy with how the glazes turned out! The inspiration was whalefall- the mini ecosystem that's created when a whale dies and sinks to the bottom of the ocean.

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Finished bottle! The glaze pools enough to make it quite comfortable to hold.

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Trying a denser carved pattern with no free space between the grooves! I was worried it was going to be uncomfortable to hold, or messier looking, but I'm liking it as another option to keep playing around with!

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Finished vase! Glazed with a semi-opaque white, and some drips of oribe in the trees. The rest of the color comes from oxide washes! I really like the dreamy, wintery look.

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Playing around a little with different directions to push the carvings. I'm liking the simple landscape, but I do think I'm inherently a little limited in this format in terms of line weights, shading, etc. compared to a drawing or painting, so I think keeping it a bit abstract is helpful.

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And the final fired jars! The glaze on the right is maybe too much of a runner to use on vertical carved faces, because it starts to collect and flow through the channels, creating some dangerously large drips. But it sure does look nice on the lid!

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Two more jars ready for glaze firing! Even with a solid understanding of glaze chemistry, it's still always amazing to me to see the difference in color between the dry glaze and the final fired piece!

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Here's how the jar from the other week turned out! The glaze ended up quite thick on top, and almost completely filled in the grooves on the lid. I love how you can still see the pattern in the glaze, even though it doesn't look carved anymore. I may have to try doing that intentionally with a plate or shallow bowl!

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Another carved mug! This has definitely become my favorite glaze for showing off the carving.

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Completely obsessed with carving various thrown forms right now...

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This is how one of the carved mugs turned out! I really like the more subtle color variation of the shino breaking just the smallest amount over the texture. I know pinholing is generally not a desirable feature, but I think it's really aesthetically interesting in this case!

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I tend to avoid mugs because I don't really like pulling handles, but I really like how the carving fits with the forms! Need to keep practicing

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Finished vases! I'm really happy with how the glaze breaks over the carvings. Definitely something I'm going to need to start playing around with a lot more.

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More experiments in different bottle forms, and new carved patterns. I'm not fully convinced on all of them yet, but I really like the simple shape and flowy pattern on the far left one! It's similar to some of the star patterns I've done before, but less structured.