More work in progress

Brrrr, it's gone chilly again here, the clay was so cold on my hands this morning when rolling out coils. I've just finished the piece below on the right and I'm quite pleased with the way it's turned out, partly because it's the biggest thing I've made for a while.

Tallest one is about 12 inches

I've decided to keep these as closed forms, it will certainly make them alot easier to decorate with slip. Difficult to see on this photo, but they are roughly triangular in cross-section. I also decorated the lidded jar below with black and white slips..ideally, I could do with a larger hakeme brush which will create longer, more sweeping strokes.

Hakeme is certainly an art form, which like everything else in ceramics, requires dedicated practice. The slip needs to be at the perfect consistency, so you can lay down the top coat in as few strokes as possible..it also takes experience to be able to guess how the surface is going to look after glaze firing, once the dark iron slip burns through. I painted on the slip with the lid in place, so it will be interesting to see how easily it comes off again without ruining the decoration.