This Petite Jewel Like Yunomi has an unctuous feel in the hand and an incredible visual depth to the glaze finish that demands close and careful viewing. The AMAZING and UNEXPECTED red band is a result of the two glazes overlapping and the Nuka causing the copper in the Turquoise Matte to reduce, which achieves this result. Very beautiful where the copper in the turquoise matte reduced and created an almost brick red color and the teal line between the turquoise and the red is an added bonus. Lot to study in this small tea cup.

Dimensions: 2-1/2″h. x 2-3/4″dia. @ widest point.
Volume: 3.75 ounces/ 110 ml

***If you double click on the images they will zoom.***

I teach a workshop for artists titled, “Photograph Your Work”, several times a year at SHY RABBIT Contemporary Arts in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, USA. The two day workshop covers a lot of ground relative to the proper way to shoot images of 2D and 3D works of art. The ridiculously simple and cheap set-up in the images below will give you an idea of the concepts of how to use the gray background paper, how to set-up the lighting using a bounce board and how to create the classic gradient using a background sweep.

I use this set-up for small guinomi sake cups all the way up to my larger sculpture pieces, some as tall as 60.” If you understand the principals in the images below, you will be able to exploit this set-up’s flexibility.

I use a Nikon D40 Digital SLR with an 18-55mm lens

I use 2 – 500 watt, GE PhotoFloods (Tungsten), color temp. 3400K

I use a Neutral Gray or Dove Gray PhotoPaper Background (I don’t use a gradient paper, the gradient is created by the light being “cut-off” by the back of the “bounce Board.”)

I shoot on Manual setting at f25 with the exposure set using an 18% Gray Card. Then I disregard my light meter, as it will indicate a different exposure for every different piece, depending its lightness or darkness.

Remember to set you camera’s white balance to 3400k or tungsten or incandescent, whatever your camera uses.

As I think a picture is worth a 1000 words, please view the images below and ask me questions. Please consider subscribing to my blog, that way you will receive emails of other’s questions and my responses.

A sample of an image taken with this set-up. Also, the images in the header of this blog were also shot with this method.

Thanks for visiting…

I fired the small kiln a few days ago and thought I would throw in a piece glazed with the “I Got Interrupted Glaze” to see if the previous results were repeatable, they weren’t. What I did get, was again, a complete surprise. This time the glaze had turned a Smokey Rose with a similar Dry Matte finish on the exterior with a Pale Cream interior. This glaze has no colorants or oxides added, not sure where the color is coming from(?) Is it possible that the volatile copper from the Chun Red and Oribe glazes in this firing might have caused this color…not sure.

I’ve posted images below as a comparison of the two different effects. I would be interested in any ideas as to how this color was achieved.

Front of Cup

Back of same cup

Result of the first firing of the “I Got Interrupted Glaze”

Somewhere in the middle of mixing a satin crawling shino I was “interrupted” by an, at that time, “unwelcome” visitor. I marked my place in the recipe with a Post-it note and attended to the visitor. Twenty minutes later I’m back to mixing my shino. The next ingredient on the recipe to be weighed out was the felspar, but I reached for the calcium carb. instead. I didn’t realize the mistake until an hour later when a strange sense of.. uh oh! came over me. I replayed, in my mind, the addition of the last few ingredients and that’s when I discovered my  mistake.

The glaze had been mixed with water and sieved twice and was otherwise ready to go. I thought, calcium carb and feldspar are both fluxes so lets see what happens, so I test the batch on several small pieces including the sake cup pictured below. I fired the pieces in my last glaze firing to ∆10 in reduction, boy was I surprised by the results. What surprised me the most was the stoney like surface finish and the charcoal grays to lavenders and the golden hues on the inside. There were no oxides in this batch, this I know for sure, the iron rich clay body added some. I really like this glaze, a lot. I will test some more to see if it’s repeatable…It’s very possible, on that day, I got more than one ingredient screwed up and this glaze is just a short lived, one-of-a-kind.

As for me, I’ve always been interested in seeing where artists work. With that in mind, I thought I would post a few images of different views around my studio. I teach classes in my studio so some of the work on the shelves is that of students and a few studio members. There is also some overflow storage for gallery ceramic artists, like Pat Crabb, Randy Au, Brad Schwieger, Jeff Pender, Larry Phan and me.

My wheel area…

Looking toward my work area and the teaching wheels…

Overflow gallery storage (top shelf)…

• Whiting   16.00
• Custer Spar   44.00
• OM-4   10.00
• Silica   22.00
• Wood Ash (unwashed)   7.00
• ADD:
• RIO    9.0

Notes: This is a ∆10 Reduction glaze that will fire to a dark brown to black and will break on edges with a shiny  finish. Will run if applied too thick and/or over fired.  As always, test for your ingredients and firing conditions. Note: This glaze adds up to 99% not 100%, that’s how it was given to me many years ago.

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For me, the interesting thing is how the multiple firings add to the depth and richness of the glaze, developing a “soft warm hand” and a subtle sheen. I don’t get tired of holding this bowl and studying its many Faces.

I would like to know what you think about multiple firing of a single piece…