Working With Color

I love modern pottery styles as well as Medieval. The earthyness and simple function of the Medieval ware is so satisfying, but I can't ignore my love of color and the more unusual shapes of contemporary ceramic ideas. This means they often are merged in my work such as with this platter:

The design is a Turkish Phoenix from the Middle Ages. But this Phoenix is done with modern underglazes on a white stoneware platter and fired to cone 6.

In another application, this is the same design I painted on my Medieval Pavilion. It reminds me of the beautiful July day when this photo was taken. A comforting thought on this below zero December evening.

But I was talking about color in pottery not the weather, so here is some of the greens on which I have been concentrating recently:

If you click on the photo to make this big the surface design is also apparent. It's subtle from a distance, but a closer look shows the amount of work that goes into each piece.

And the huckleberry purples! Now these are bright glazes, and so lovely. Yes, these bright colors can be achieved using stoneware glazes and temperatures. This photo was taken at the "Mud and Spirits" show in Coeur d'Alene, ID, sponsored by C.A.G.N.I. the weekend before this one. We were lucky, the bad weather didn't start until this Saturday and the road to and from Coeur d'Alene was great.