Revisiting old techniques…

A few weeks ago,  a client called me up to say that his wife’s favourite bowl had been smashed

He bought it from a gallery in 1997, and could he commission me to make another one?

I did recall the frog bowl when I saw it, poor thing all bandaged up with sellotape! but it was made in the days when I made my own glazes, and I had not ever bothered to write down the recipes. Big mistake.

It was interesting to try to work out what was going on with the design and the glaze, but I could not remember the sequence of things. I knew that I had used casting slip and not solid clay, and that each piece had been cast separately and then assembled inside a press mould.  I decided to make several bowls and experiment a bit along the way.

I also had not used my spray gun for years so it was pretty gunked up. The compressor worked a treat, though, which was nice.

Here is a bowl inside the spray booth.

It is hard to tell what colour they will come out once they’ve been glazed in the kiln.

I think perhaps they are too pale, and what was meant to be red frogs turned into pink frogs instead. I quite like the finished result, though, and I think I’ll show them to my client before I re-glaze them.

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