Ceramics

For a few years now I have been throwing and decorating ceramics. I use a stoneware clay with some porcelain in the mix which makes for a nice white ground to work on. My first impulse was to somehow transfer the images of birds from my paintings onto the surface of the clay but I soon discovered that colour glazes and oil paint behave in very different ways.

I use underglaze colours which are painted on after the first biscuit firing and these alter after they in turn are fired. I took some time for me to get to grips with this, a rich cobalt blue might change to a deep ultramarine blue for instance. The pieces have their final firing with a transparent glossy top glaze at 1250C.

The decoration of the pots is very time consuming and though I enjoy the complexity of some of the design I’m looking now to simplify things in order to produce more work.

Some of these examples are for sale, please contact me for prices.