Future Relics Gallery » glaze

Ronan Peterson Weekend Workshop Review

Lori — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 12:58:20 +0000

Ronan Peterson came to Mudfire recently to give a workshop about his style and process. I love his work and, although it’s not my style, was very excited about attending the workshop. The man’s energy and enthusiasm blew me away. Seriously, this man is as vibrant as his pots. He’s also a very good teacher, he kept the class fun and interesting It is probably one of the most fun workshops I’ve ever taken and is a second (after John Britt’s glaze workshop) for the most information packed into three days. Many of the other people who attended the workshop said their heads were about to explode from trying to absorb so much information. My advice is to bring a camera and a notebook to a Ronan Peterson workshop. I also advise you to go to one of his workshops, you’ll not regret it.

The workshop covered how Ronan throws and builds the forms from the clay and how he builds the surface decoration. One of the steps he stressed a lot during the forming process was to compress everything very well. This may sound pretty elementary but it is something easily forgotten when we start working in new ways and I was glad to hear it. It’s so sad to take pieces out of a kiln that are broken because of a lack of compression.

Surface decoration consists of lots of layers using slip, slip trailing, tera sigilata, wax & paper resists, and glaze. The beauty of learning all of this in one workshop is that, even if you don’t use all of them on one pot, as Ronan does, you’ll have them in your bag of tricks. He did give out the recipes for the slips, and some glazes also.

After the workshop I’ve been working in my studio thinking about the processes that Ronan showed us and trying to apply them to my work. As expected some things I tried worked well, some need more practice. I like that, I feel like if I practice with a new process I’ll also be inclined to work it into my style.

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Another Rustic Building Plate

Lori — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:02:20 +0000

Syrup Shed Plate

Here’s another plate in this series. This is a different view of the same syrup shed I painted a few weeks ago, this plate is a few inches larger at 11 inches. I like painting the larger plates better as I can get more detail and show the vastness of the fields. I’ve also been working with more low fire glazes and washes. This plate uses a combination of colored slips (a.k.a. under glazes) and high fire glazes. I really like this view and may do some variations.

Water Carving With Ryan McKearley

Lori — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:33:10 +0000

When I first saw the description for this workshop I was a little doubtful; how was this process going to fill a three day workshop and who is Ryan McKearley anyway? Then I saw Ryan’s work in the Mudfire Gallery & watched him doing a demonstration. Ryan’s work is not only full of depth from the water carving but also from his use of glazes and soda firing. Ryan is very interested in form and function, it shows in his work and his attention to detail.

Ryan McKerley demonstrates his technique

One of the reasons I enjoyed this workshop is because Ryan is very entertaining. The workshop wasn’t filled with uproarious laughter but more of a genial smile and quite a few chuckles yet at the end of three days we had all discovered we had learned quite a bit. Not just how to carve into clay using wax resist and water but different throwing techniques, some hand building and attaching processes, glazing tricks, how to design a and fire a salt/soda kiln, glaze recipes and even a little bit about the city of Austin, TX (where Ryan lives & works).

I highly recommend taking a workshop with Ryan, it’s very through, moves at a comfortable pace and is a good balance of hands on and lecture. I also recommend picking up some of his pottery while it’s still affordable. The Gallery at Mudfire almost sold out this weekend just from people who took the workshop.

Counting Pots

Lori — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:29:41 +0000

Tea Bowl

A friend on Facebook recently posted about counting glazes instead of counting sheep when sleep is allusive. I do the same type of thing but it doesn’t normally get me to sleep, it has the opposite effect. I’ll be laying there all warm and snugly with the Whiggle as ideas start popping into my head. Which of course makes me want to jump out of bed and rush to the studio to start working on these ideas. Of course the problem with pottery is that it requires patience. When I have an idea for a great glaze design I can’t just start doing it, often the correct piece needs to be made first. Sometimes it’s several pieces in a series. These pieces have to be thrown, trimmed, dried, and bisque fired before they will ever see the glaze. Please understand, I’m not complaining, I love the process of ceramics and the time it takes. I even love the fact that, unlike some other art forms, the results are not instant; pottery always has some nervous anticipation to it. Opening the kiln is like Christmas, and I’ll never complain about that joy even when it does mean you get something that you don’t want (think pink bunny pajamas). Pottery forces us to become patient. Patience is a virtue. It’s such a nice feeling to be a virtuous potter.
Right now I have several series ideas running through my head, they have started to take shape into the clay. I’m so excited to see the results and share them with you.

VC Blue Green variation: cone 6-10

Lori — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:00:58 +0000

This is the glaze I used as a liner in some salt fired pieces. It’s a beautiful glaze which makes a great liner with pleanty of subtle interest. It does run quite a lot; I’d suggest making certain the bottom of the put does not have a very thick coat as the glaze will run down the sides into the bottom and may cause bubbling or cracking.

40 Neph Sy

10 EPK

14 Flint

10 Gerstly B

8 Lithium

8 Whiting

10 Zircopax

1.4 Copper Carb