Star(fish) and stripes...

Unlike many potters, probably the sane ones, I do not have the luxury of doing one thing at a time...working in cycles. Currently I am throwing small groups and hauling it a couple hours over to Little Mahoning Creek Pottery for the wood kiln, but at the same time I am working on finishing surfaces. I am up to my ears in decals and after the first small batch, I am in a groove. I am enjoying the new images that I am using to create the collage based surfaces. BUT what I am enjoying even more is the underglaze element that I added to the piece before bisque. The bright stripes with the incised lines create a new and varied surface as a background to my images' foreground. I dig it. AND I feel as if this makes more a connection to the mid-range electric kiln fired work that I have done and know that I will be doing again soon. Although I have always thought of the atmospheric, shino rich surfaces of my wood fired pieces ideal as a contrasting abstract background to my clean and graphic laser printed decals...not to mention the tonality of the decal and the wood fired pieces have a very pleasant uniformity...I'm beginning to broaden this thought.

Besides the addition of the brighter colors, it is the scrawling scraffito work that I found almost addictive. I bought a nice little loop tool that cuts like butter and I love the look of the line in the clay. I am using the underglazes like slips and putting them on while the work is still leather hard so that I can scratch into, over and around until I am satisfied. I am so involved in this portion of the process that I think I am going to start making a WHOLE LOT of wall based works. I plan to be scratching patterns and imagery in as the background layer for the laser printed and commercial decals...and maybe some gold "bling bling" luster too. If I can shift the focus of utility to be more about just the surface image, I think I would be very happy. But in the mean time I will still be throwing mugs and stuff...I doubt I could ever give up mugs...my favorite thing.

So have a gander at some pieces in process(click to see bigger)...some with the underglazes and scraffito and some with just the laser printed decals...none are fired yet...keep your finger crossed and thanks for looking!