A few days in Salzburg, Austria

We spent a few days with Lesly & Kurt in the medieval and baroque city of Salzburg. The old town, listed as a UNESCO site, has its late Renaissance buildings painted in an assortment of pastels. It's the birthplace of Mozart and many places are exploiting this. 

We also had a glimpse of the countryside around Salzburg, including the  Untersberg (the local mountain overlooking Salzburg, shared between Austria and Germany and peaking at 1973m) and the enchanting Bluntautal valley. A really lovely place!

Pots series 16 - Stitching and Slipping

I've reached new heights (29cm!) by stitching two cylinders on top of each other. We can still notice the junction as it's a bit narrower there. I've also enjoyed spending time applying and decorating with slip. Patterns are inspired from Carolyn Genders' work. Like glazes, slips contain oxides and they drastically change colour when firing so we need to use imagination at this stage! The four slips (two coats each) I used were: 

- black (brown in the picture), 

- galaxy blue (white in the picture), 

- grey (light blue in the picture) 

- bright green (light grey in the picture).

After I applied the slip, I used a wooden carving tool to scratch the surface so that the white clay (dark grey in the picture) is revealed (sgraffito).


You can see below the pictures before (on the left) and after firing (on the right).

Pots series 15 - Double Blob (hourglass)

I've been trying out a new shape: the double blob. I've made the constriction in the middle before pushing out the round parts. I also experimented a bit with the glazing: rainbow for a set and reactive black and white for another.

Before firing: underglazes applied with a brush,
overlapping at the intersections to make a gradient of colours,
then a coat of transparent

After firing, the colours are even sharper

Inside: 1x shiny white, then 1x matt black
Outside: 1x Lucie Rie white, then 1x matt black

I love how the glazes reacted together,
it's quite soft and unpredictable

Pots series 14 - Let's get crackling !

This week I've tried to use the crackle glaze. I initially got disappointed with the result as the crackling is not visible (it does not have any contrast) coming out of the kiln... That's because the cracks need to be subsequently filled with black ink, revealing all those fine crack lines! I love it, and I look forward to trying it again! 

2 x crackle glaze, thick band of black iron on the rim

2 x crackle glaze, thick band of black iron on the rim

I also did another trio of brushed oxide.

1x shiny white, wide brush of spotted green, thin brush of cobalt

Pots series 13 - A brush of oxide

For this series of small pots, I used a simple design: white background, brushed with pure oxides. I used cobalt for a solid blue and black iron for a rusty effect. I used a wide, synthetic rigid brush and applied a tiny amount of oxide on. For comparaison, I previously brushed a shiny black glaze on the same white glaze;  the colour is much more intense and deep using the pure oxide.
I also tried out an underglaze pencil (followed by a coat of transparent glaze).

Front, left: black iron / Back, left: cobalt / right: shiny black glaze

Underglaze black pencil