Getting closer to my first firing for the year.

It seems to take forever to get the first kiln load out for the year. The winter is always a good time to experiment with new forms, clay bodies, slip application, and glazes which naturally eat up more time than if you were just doing a bunch of mugs and such.

To the left are some new Chawans, teapots, and a few small serving dishes that I've been working on. I'm using the same heavy-slip technique on the tea bowls as I did with the saki servers in the previous post, albeit with a different clay body. By the time I'm done with all my experiments, I'll probably have five different buckets of slips which I made with the various clay bodies at my disposal (and to think my lifelong goal is to simplify everything!).

The small plates are for the Harbor House Inn. I'm assuming they'll be used for some amuse bouche or some other kind of presentation. Hopefully, the glaze I use will bring out the contrast between the white slip and the dark clay body its been loosely applied over.