Just thrown bowl.

After months away from the studio, this is the First bowl thrown. 1st day of Summer for 2013, a great way to cool of with hands constantly dripping with cold water. andrew widdis 1st of Dec. 2013.

Beaker.

Vorto beaker
Porcelain, clear glaze.

Today; last day of Winter
Firing the kiln.
Taking photo's.
Playing with light.
Anticipating Spring tomorrow.

Shot at night.

Shot at night using a torch.

Bowls.

Bowls with spirals from the side of my thumb, made during the last movement to define the shape of the bowl.
I love the daring involved in making these lines. The clay is compressed tightly between my fingers on the inside and the edge of my thumb on the outside; one wrong move of either hand and it can go pear shape (almost literally).

The curve of the foot is also shaped by my thumb. I do not trim, I hate the mess it makes.

Big foot.

Hand thrown bowl with thrown foot.
Gloss and satin glazes.
Oxidation fired to ^10.

Bowl, dots and a line or two.

It's the curve/line of the bowl that pushes me to make the next bowl. It's the glaze and layering that has me eager to open the kiln after an agonising wait of a 48 hour firing process. The dots, I think, focus the eye.

Bowl.

A new bowl with some minimal decoration adornment of ash and iron spots on a satin glaze.

I'm enjoying this, but it's hard to get myself into the studio on these cold winter days. Zero degrees overnight now.

http://www.andrewwiddis.com

http://www.facebook.com/andrewwiddis.potter

White coffee cup.

Coffee tastes better in a plain white cup. Of course it needs to be a hand thrown white coffee cup with a personality formed from fingers on soft clay.

A winters saturday by the fire.

It's Saturday, it's cold and wet outside; what better way to spend the day than making ash for glaze.
Fascinated by the most beautiful blue on this charred log.

Of course the sound of crackling, the warmth and smell of a fire on any Winter day is a wonderful occasion in itself.
As a potter, I have the wonderful bye product of ash to use.
Just need to find the courage to go to a very cold kitchen at some point for food supplies.

Platter for change.

I've now put more than a few of these platters through the kiln; I've learnt something about my kiln as a result.
My bottom shelf sits flat on the bottom of the kiln, no props underneath. I've learnt that a platter with such a wide flat base suffers from thermal shock as a result. Obviously the heat is retained in the base and walls of the kiln longer than in the atmosphere, as a result the base of the platter is hotter than the wall of the platter and as the wall of the platter changes from α-quartz to β-quartz the base has not changed at the same time. The result is thermal shock during quarts inversion. (α-quartz separates from β-quartz) This is interesting stuff, until you find a large platter at the bottom of the kiln with a massive crack through it after days of waiting and anticipating as it slowly goes through its firing.

This little platter is my favourite, so I'm keeping it. It has pride of place at the moment and receives coin donations every time I come home from shopping.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz_inversion

Platter.

Love pushing a freshly thrown vessel about with a piece of bamboo.

Footed bowl/greenware.

It's Tuesday, pots are dry and ready for a bisque firing tonight.

Big foot really loves warm weather.

I love Autumn. Not so hot that you can't be bothered, but still warm enough to get things done quickly. This bowl thrown at about 11PM (last night). Foot thrown on base at 3PM (today). Should be in the kiln on Tuesday.

We have colour...

I've been working on decoration for a little while now. Not something that comes naturally to me, but I think this works.

I still enjoy a minimal vessel, so perhaps it could equally spend as much time turned to the not so busy back side.

White bowl.

One of those bowls I'm glad I kept.
               
Today I finished off glazing a kiln load of white bowls with some colour brushed on here and there.
Not sure how they will turn out, I was intrigued when I caught this bowl in the afternoon sun.
Simple, with no fancy adornment, I'm now worried that I'm going the wrong way. Colour, why do I need colour?
Guess one should not look back too often.

First bowls for 2013.

First bowls out of the kiln this year. All bowls were fault free, so bodes well for a good 2013.
I threw these bowls on the last day of 2012 and trimmed the foot on New Years day. Interesting that I spontaneously changed the inner foot (the bit that faces the table surface) to almost flat. I formed it with my thumb and compressed it with a hard bit of bamboo. I think it was just a reaction or tiredness to the mess created by the trimmings flying off and landing on the floor. This is the messy part and the bain of my studio practice. Using the thumb to form the desired shape rather than cutting the shape with a metal tool. The bamboo creates a slight recess. The other advantage to this is that there is no water to splash out when removing from the dishwasher.
So I think, a win win!

Containment @ The Ian Potter Centre

Containment: 2012 Cicely & Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award

I loved it all, and just when I thought it could not possibly get any better; the next room was full of a who's who of 20th century studio ceramics. Though no Lucie Rie, Hans Coper or Bernard Leach, unfortunately.
I went with a bunch of friends visiting from O/S (U.K & Denmark); so it was a quick walk through (wanting to see more of the Potter gallery), and I think I missed a bit on the right side. I WILL go back again... and again.
To criticise it, I would have to say that everyone except probably Marian Hosking was in their safe space. No one was exploring new ground, just seeming to make their usual, but on a bigger scale.
So with that in mind, I think Marian Hosking deservedly won. Though they are all winners to me.


Containment: 2012 Cicely & Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award.
The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia | 23 November 2012 - 21 July 2013 | FREE

Containment @ The Ian Potter Centre

2013, your here!

Lots of things flowering in 2012, but I'm looking for new things to blossom in 2013.
I hope the same for you.