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