Bruce Girrell on thu 16 mar 00
Gail Nichols, an Australian potter whose work was featured in November's
Ceramics Monthly, was here in Traverse City on Monday. During her slide
presentation she of course showed her kiln setup. There on the propane tanks
was a beautifully simple solution to the freezing tank problem that I didn't
see brought up during our recent thread on the subject. She had wrapped a
soaker hose (a.k.a. dripper hose) around the tanks. Totally safe. Easy to
adjust. No standing and pointing a nozzle at the tanks, no carrying and
pouring of buckets, no lifting heavy tanks into water baths. Simple.
Elegant. Loved it.
I may as well report on her talk, too.
Her soda glazes are very interesting. They look like they're about an 1/8
inch thick, but she says that they're only about as thick as a sheet of
paper. No glaze is applied to the pots before firing, it is all built up
from the soda during the firing. Frosty white stuff like icing with
wonderful flashing. Most of the flashing was on the inside of the pots and
near the supports (seashells) that were there during firing. Carbon
trapping, too. I found the colors of the flashing to be the interesting
part, but she is more interested in the white icing. She says that the
whiteness of it is due to extreme crazing - crazing so small and extensive
that it is visible only under a microscope.
She has developed a specialized clay body and a unique method of delivering
the soda to the pots. She is really intrigued with this process. Her forms
serve only as a canvas for her glaze. Whatever form she thinks will make the
glaze run and break the way she wants is what she throws. "Throws" may be a
bit misleading. She throws a shape on the wheel, but then alters the
daylights out of it to get the form that she wants.
Gail will be at NCECA, so those of you going will get a chance to see her
work there.
Wish we were going.
Bruce and Lynne Girrell
Gonna raku this weekend! It's about time.
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