My version of a Balinese mask. Usually carved in wood, I built this one in a home-made white porcellanous clay, purely for wall decoration. Traditionally, these masks served as a sort of lightning rod to Balinese dancers and wearers and invoked forces larger than man to 'come down' and listen to human requests and prayers for protection, prosperity and guardianship.

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CLAY - GLAZE - KILN - FIRING:
Unglazed hand-built medium temperature white clay. Earthenware stains, adapted to produce degrees of dryness or gloss; painted directly on the bisque-fired clay. Fired to around 1140ºC in an electric kiln. The teeth were made separately and glued in place with epoxy.

Another successful entry in the Fletcher Challenge Ceramics exhibition, this large spherical stoneware clay urn was inspired by the great ocean that encircles the Earth - and by my many years on holiday at our family's seaside home at Front Beach, Whitianga, Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand. This stunningly beautiful location was the scene for many explorations both near, on and under the ocean and burned in my mind a lasting impression of the ocean's power, wilderness and mystery.

Once the high-temperature part of the making process is completed, subsequent lustre firings can be anxiety-provoking events. Because of the pot's large size, firings must be carried out extremely slowly, during both heating and cooling. It is very easy to lose a piece through impatience. Electric kiln firing cycles of 2 to 3 days are not unusual - as well as loud screams, wailings and other unmentionable sounds when things go wrong!

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CLAY - GLAZE - KILN - FIRING:
Iron-rich Kopuku stoneware clay, reduction fired to 1300°C in a 50 cu.ft LPG top-hat ceramic fibre kiln. Extremely stable white dolomitic glaze with high temperature cobalt overstains. Subsequent oxidized lustre firings to 800 - 820°C in an electric kiln to permanently bond metallic gold and mother-of-pearl lustres to the stoneware glaze surface.

When it's all put together, whether we wear the glasses of science, philosophy or religiousness, life devolves into unbridled mystery - an ever-changing fractal dance in which no cloud, ocean wave, leaf or human is ever the same as any other, nor has never been or ever will be. The mermaid, like the ocean, represents female energy and metamorphosis - the ability to flow and change with that which brought us into being and extend ourselves into what is possible - the possible human. I love this particular pottery technique: simple, elegant and immensely satisfying, especially on the canvas of a large wall plate.

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CLAY - GLAZE - KILN - FIRING:
Cobalt-laden clay slip is applied to the raw clay surface, left to dry a little and then incised with various simple tools. White dolomitic glaze is applied over everything and the piece is fired to 1300°C in a medium to heavy reduction atmosphere. LPG ceramic fibre kiln, Kopuku stoneware clay.

A large bowl, with the same white glaze as the previous wallplate but with quite a different outcome. First the bamboo design was painted quickly using a calligraphic brush and hot wax. The flanged rim of the bowl was also waxed. An iron/cobalt slip was applied over the waxed bamboos using random strokes with a broad flat hakeme brush.

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CLAY - GLAZE - KILN - FIRING:
At 1300°C stoneware temperature, the iron/cobalt slip etches its way into the glaze below, with a pallette of pale and darker blues, greys and browns. A very Japanese look I've always enjoyed. Fired in a medium to heavy reduction atmosphere. LPG ceramic fibre kiln, Kopuku stoneware clay

Porcelain bowl, transluscent white clay with clear pale green celadon glaze over blue iron/cobalt brushwork. Porcelain is a different ballgame to the other clays, demanding meticulous cleanliness of the work area, wheel and tools. The clay softens at stoneware temperatures and deforms easily but when it works the reward is great. This bowl was decorated with a homemade brush of pig hair cut from the back of a huge farm pig and tied to a thin stick of bamboo, with a character quite unlike commercial brushes.

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CLAY - GLAZE - KILN - FIRING:
1300°C temperature, finely ground blue and white cobalt stain tempered with iron and yellow ochre. Fired in a medium to heavy reduction atmosphere. LPG ceramic fibre kiln, commercial porcelain clay.

Decorative earthenware wallplate with white earthenware slip over a red clay body. Decorated with low temperature vitreous stains and homemade ceramic crayons, finally covered with just a haze of clear glaze.

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CLAY - GLAZE - KILN - FIRING:
Fired at 1100°C earthenware temperature in the oxidizing atmosphere of an electric kiln. Terracotta clay body lined with sprayed white clay slip. Decoration on biscuit-fired pot. An interesting, colourful technique.

Traditional Japanese woodfired high-temperature Shino glaze. The simple glaze has so many faces, from blistered, boiled, pockmarked surfaces to waxy, tactile, crazed, buttery textures. Flashes of red and orange among the white are prized. Pots often accumulate a dusting of fly ash from the wood used in firing. This melts into a brown to greenish glass.

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CLAY - GLAZE - KILN - FIRING:
Woodfired with 3 foot slabs of pine to 1300°C stoneware temperature. Varied light to heavy reduction atmosphere with periods of oxidation. 3-chamber wood kiln. Kopuku stoneware with added china clay

I've always wanted to make a pyramid and this, in its raw state, was a sizeable and challenging project. The proportions follow the ancient Cheops pyramid and I worked without a mold - just slabs of floppy clay that had to be joined exactly at all the correct angles. The biscuit-fired sculpture sat, uncompleted, in the pottery for several years. When I finally felt inspired enough to continue I found to my delight that I had not one, but four wonderful canvases to work with - each side a continuum of the other three in a wrap-around panorama. The theme is one of "above and below" - the visible everyday world and the hidden quantum world of seething fractal energy.

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CLAY - GLAZE - KILN - FIRING:
This was one of the slowest projects I've done (aside from large tile murals) and I minimized the risk of explosions and cracking by using gentle heating and cooling ramps at the crtical expansion and contraction points. Biscuit fired, glazed in a stable white glaze, then decorated with black stain outlines. The outlines were then themselves delineated with hot wax after which high-temperature overglaze stains were applied to the non-waxed areas. Fired to 1300°C in a medium to heavy reduction atmosphere, followed by several 830°C on-glaze lustre firings in a clean oxidizing atmosphere, using pure gold, platinum, mother-of-pearl, copper and various coloured enamels. LPG ceramic fibre kiln, Kopuku stoneware clay.

I've always found large wallplates to be wonderful canvases to work on and this image shows the close-up detail of part of a plate. Here the opaque white, extremely stable glaze was airbrushed with an iron/cobalt stain to give a multi-layered 'depth' effect. After the stoneware firing was completed, fine gold highlights were added over several low-temperature lustre firings to about 830°C. The gold highlights shimmer and sparkle as light catches them from different angles.

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CLAY - GLAZE - KILN - FIRING:
Kopuku Stoneware, due to a high content of a slippery clay called Bentonite, is a wonderful clay with which to throw very large objects. It also has a fairly high iron content which can interact with the white glaze to produce a very pale celadon, as in this opaque dolomitic glaze. Air-brushed cobalt stain. Reduction fired to 1300°C in a top-hat LPG ceramic fibre kiln. Several low temperature lustre firings.

One of my "Working With Fire" volcanic series. This was an exciting piece to complete, literally, in the heart of a 1300°C firing. A simple unglazed sphere was partially sprayed with white clay slip and a few metallic oxides prior to being placed in the first chamber of a 3-chamber wood kiln, just behind a large spyhole brick that could be removed at the height of the firing. The pot was placed sideways on three small china clay balls and gently pressed down until it was stable. I then made a 'spoon tool' out of a kitchen spoon wired to a 3 foot piece of copper pipe. Using this tool I could carefully decant various materials such as wood ash from the kiln firebox over the top of the pot, while watching through welding goggles in the intense white heat. After several spoonfuls of ash and low temperature glaze frits I was rewarded with lava-like rivulets of molten ash slowly cascading down the pot. Amazing!

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CLAY - GLAZE - KILN - FIRING:
Kopuku stoneware partially covered with white slip. Various materials such as ash, frit, salt and metallic oxides applied with a spoon to white-hot pot. Fired to 1300°C in a 3-chamber wood kiln.