Fiorghra

I’m gifting a good portion of my pottery stock this Christmas. It’s hard to do because each piece is a unique creation, often the first time I’ve mastered or at least attained a reasonable level of skill at a particular technique. The two pieces I gave to the family from Head Start were stained with the same pattern (royal blue on the bottom and emeraud on the top. I indented the sides of one and flared the top which gave it a very pleasing shape.)

The covered bowl I gave to Sara from my office is the best covered dish I’ve ever made. The top fit perfectly which was interesting because it was the first time I’d thrown a top before throwing the bottom. I found it easier to fit the bottom to a particular size opening than I had been able to do with the tops in the past. And I gave the top a rather deep gasket and finished it with some rope coils. The glaze was royal blue with pippin over the coils to create a nice green over blue combination.

I gave Robert that nice tall mug that had the chun over the royal blue, giving it kind of a glossy black over the green part of the chun. Actually it must be the opposite - royal blue over chun. I like it though and want to try it again on some other pieces.

I gave Kerri a small embellished pedestal bowl glazed with chun – one of those that was fired in a particularly hot kiln and turned the normally predominantly rust colored glaze a more mucus green color. The green is usually the less dominant color and works much better as such in my opinion. But I got used to the green and rather liked it after being with it for a few days.

I haven’t decided which piece to use for the Yankee Swap tonight. I think with what’s left I will put it out on a table and just let people pick a piece if they’d like. Maybe they want a cup, or prefer a covered trinket dish over a serving bowl or a vase. Or maybe they don’t want anything. Too much “stuff” already.

There are some nice pieces – a bowl that I squared off at the top and embellished with a strip of stamped clay and some leaves; a blue pedestal bowl with stamped handles; a tall stamped vase that I hand built,(Linda ended up choosing that as her Yankee Swap gift) as well as a fairly tall vase I threw that has roped handles with a matching coil on the bottom. That was done in the royal blue with chun over the top. I left a good four inches with just the blue on the bottom but the chun ran right down to the coil – and over in one place. Malley had warned me that it ran but I didn’t realize how much. Yikes.


I’ve also got a blue stamped rectangular tray, (I think Jenika chose that piece) a nice plant pot and some small bowls all done in chun. A serving bowl with leaf stamps and handles and a matching set of two bowls done with the blue on the bottom with pippin over the top making that pretty green. And a couple of small covered containers. I’ll set them up on a table and invite everyone to choose one, if they wish.