forks throws pottery (and maybe you do too?) - An ILX Ceramics Thread

I'm always impressed by your stuff, forks. I got to do some making/glazing with my mum last year (including a raku firing, yesssss) - I very much did not inherit any talent for it, but it was still fun.

boy i'd like to try raku sometime. share pix of your stuff? i'm curious.

I love Raku stuff, I think I can trace back my (fairly new) interest in ceramic art to a trip a couple of years ago to the Sagawa Art museum near Kyoto. They have a pretty extensive collection of tea bowls by the fifteenth Raku presented in this really atmospheric underground vault, underneath a tea room the he also designed. I recently saw something in an auctions catalogue by the 10th Raku which was even more breathtaking. However its only recently I've been starting to appreciate the art form more and there is some truly amazing stuff in this thread.

I'm getting really excited by the wood firing and ash glazing stuff I've been seeing recently. Its; such an interesting way of working, there's so much that is a mixture of experience and chance.

Super excited to see how your kiln god turns out.

Thanks! Here's a few other pieces I've done relatively recently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQIkhKDaLHU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-ic1hsuUVE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfuiR1E5Z5A

The first two are completely finished. The head jug was just fooling around and promptly discarded but it made for a fun afternoon of play.

and here's a few views of a piece i made as part of a set in collaboration with a friend who was making replicas of ancient pigeon figurines that I dressed up in different suits. Lemme know if you're curious about the other five or so i did with her?
http://i.imgur.com/dPRq02v.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/qKjbeZO.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ZJGtNvi.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Va26hkF.jpg

anyways i have plenty more pieces i could put up here but i guess one more will do for now.
This was very intentionally Haring inspired and done in collaboration with the same guy who did the coil built double vase above.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7x834dCjsk

share pix of your stuff? i'm curious.

Oh lord no, I only did a few sessions and they were all just the basics of different practices (pinch pot, wheel and glazing), so my results were very much of an embarrassing first-timer. I used my mum's pots to glaze for the raku firing and I was kind of pleased with some of the expressionist daubing I did, but even that still wasn't great!

i love seeing first time results! and if you scroll to the top of this thread, you'll see piles of mine! It's useful to share and keep; that's how ideas get around.

I love that bowl and the alien apple, your carved stuff is truly amazing.

Right now I am obsessing over this style of natural glazing, this green glass over white clay is really striking

http://japaneseceramicart.com/shopdetail/000000001209/yui_tsujimura/page1/order/
https://www.yui-tsujimura.com/about

I'm really growing in an appreciation for ceramics as an art form. Like a lot of the art I like there is a really interesting intersection between art, craft, deep knowledge of the materials, engineering, artifice and science, plus some degree of magic when you don't quite know how something will transform when it is fired.

Yeah, the weird thing about pottery compared to painting or sculpture is that element: almost like baking bread, you don't truly know how a piece will turn out until it comes out of the oven/kiln.

I think that is what excites me about the big tunnel kilns, 6 month or a year throwing pots, weeks of loading, choosing spots in the kiln, days and nights of firing, weeks of cooling and unloading and only then do you know if your tea bowl is a masterpiece or a heap of fragments.

The guy in PA who I linked to above said he loses up to 50% of his pots in a firing. Crazy.

yyyyyyes the baking analogy is not inaccurate but it's worth noting that if you really want to just make basic pots, you can pretty reliably produce work in an electric kiln. Like everything else, it's a question of the risks you're taking and the effect you want to get. Some breakage and error is almost inevitable though, yes.

Kiln god vase came out pretty good! Will photo.

Until then, here's a hopeful detail (about an inch by and inch and a half) from a piece i made after the 2018 elections

http://i.imgur.com/YX9ecYx.png

Good luck charm.

buddy at the studio was working on making cork-nose piggybanks for his kids and I asked if he wanted me to try my hand at freehand decorating one. Got it back to him about two hours later and he seemed real happy so we may do it again!
http://i.imgur.com/EwRVQdn.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/CbMnbez.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/JbbQDJ8.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/4lAC2HU.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BYNFvliyR0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2onuBxhafg

Great Pottery Throwdown S4 started a bubble season this week with a rebooted judge/host/studio tech and I already like it better than before!

Heh, yes. Much-needed comfort TV for me, will be watching along.

improvements:
1) they got rid of the previous "our host is a model" host and replaced with someone much more fun to be around
2) they took their previous (immensely likable) studio tech and made him a judge. Both Sue and Kate were fine but added a note of rigor and precision to the judging that feels less appropriate given the global circumstances.
3) the emotions are even higher than usual and people are almost all in a continuous state of nearly sobbing which makes this the realest and most healthy looking show on television right now. It's chill without being background tv or just pap.
4) our new studio tech is Rose Schmitts whose work reminds me of some things I've done in the past, dresses snazzy, and makes an explicit point about the show's stance on gender politics
https://www.instagram.com/roseschmits/
https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2021/01/11/rose-schmits-trans-great-pottery-throw-down-channel-4/

Yeah, I never understood the presenter choices, this one seems much less annoying so far. Also didn't know anything about the studio tech, she seems very cool!

that cheekless Dolly Parton belongs on the 'cursed images thread'

i lost my shit when real dolly came on. who knew she was a fan!?!?

also: there have been like three covid positives in my studio which leaves me unwilling to visit. it's making me very sad. haven't touched clay in months.

Oh god, the cheekless Dolly was a nightmare. The other one was amazing though, and I kind of liked it even with the damage, it made it look like a newly-recovered Greek statue or something.

Stick to the brief ya morons!

Shock double booting though, imo.

lol, every time anyone ever does this on a reality show I always cringe. Moron, do you not watch the shows? Don't you know how this turns out?

or the equally stupid "I've never tried this before but I feel like it's worth a shot." It's not! You're on international television! Practice first!

Agh spoilers! hidden tag! not on the t0rr3ntz yet!

sorry! I didn't say who got booted though...

Oh shit, I'll edit that into hidden now.

it's okay it's okay

I do think that sometimes the line between "innovated within the brief" and "didn't stick to the brief" is blurry. But then there are other times when it's pretty clear that the brief has been completely missed or ignored (hi certain people on Blown Away).

it was a bit brutal and the people will be missed

but it also felt a bit lazy

slow work these days. here's a few things in process or done. let me know if better pics would be welcome.

http://i.imgur.com/29cYbvb.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/KXRtp2A.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/TfYPRN2.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/MLOiy4u.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/AD0qNzd.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/GUXKIx0.jpg
this last one stands about a foot and a half tall and the glazing is taking forever.

and a few more, including the kiln god vase mentioned upthread

http://i.imgur.com/u43B7gZ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/3NRoA6t.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/t7sxFBX.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/8frW9VU.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/cTlJcMP.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/xtrahKo.jpg

In the 4th and 5th photos posted today, are those two separate pieces that fit together or is it all one piece with two separate glazes/finishes.

two separate pieces joined. it's part of a series of work i'm doing with my friend/collaborator about communities where two pieces are fused into one to support each other structurally and aesthetically. the dancing/loving vases directly above are part of the same project and the first post of a clown shoe shape has a mate of the same size and design that will support from below.

Cool stuff.

much obliged

hey forks do you sell your stuff? i really love your style!

Thanks! I don't sell as a rule so much but make me an offer and a request via ilxmail and i can see about making you a thing? Be warned I am slow!

several in progress pieces, many collabos

http://i.imgur.com/IXcIWiN.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/xxdLsgp.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/teZz0AL.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/EtfI4CH.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/fXMhxG9.jpg

Wow! That is trippy stuff. I took a beginner wheel class this summer and made one basic thing (a plant pot) but the idea of keeping on with making pottery was extremely tempting! But I think I would be boring and conventional and make, like dishes...your work is much more interesting.

well i hardly STARTED there, you can scroll up to the top of the thread and see my boring and conventional work up there! it takes everyone time to progress from basic forms and decoration into their own voice. I strongly recommend you keep with it; it's been a real life saver for me.

New episodes of Pottery Throwdown tomorrow

Pottery Throwdown. AJ's orange sponge walkman earphones, are they functional or decoration? looks like the leads come down and join in the middle with something ornamental there.

hahaha i have been asking myself that same question. they could be some sort of retro-enabled bluetooth thing but the fact that they are totally clean and have no clay on them leads me to think they are an affectation.

They are really fun potters by the way!

the ornamental thing looks like a tiny silver hammer. i've seen iron mongers wear something similar, like a thor's hammer (below), but this is a more modern shape.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mj%C3%B6lnir