Handmade plates

Colourful plates

Different colours and shapes of plates!

Lavender violet, spotty white and river blue plate
Lavander violet big plate
Lavander violet plate
Lagoon turquize rustic plate
Lagoon turquize plate
Lavander violet big plate
Vivid violet plate
Lagoon turquize plate
Forest green plate
Spotty white big rustic plate
Yellow, blue turquize and forest green plate
Smokey violet plate
Ocean blue, smokey violet and yellow plate
River blue plate
River blue plate
Spotty white big plate
Yellow plate
Vivid violet, lagoon turquiz, lavander violet amd smokey white plate
Smokey white plate
Glazes

Glazes under microscope

Here are some photos of glazes under microscope. It’s like exploring space.

Living crystal structures captured in time. Microworlds hidden from our eyes. Poetry of nature.

Glaze 14
Glaze 15
Glaze 1
Glaze 3
Glaze 12
Glaze 11
Glaze 10
Glaze 9
Glaze 9
Glaze 8
Glaze 8
Glaze 7
Glaze 7
Glaze 7
Glaze 6
Glaze 5
Glaze 4
Glaze 3
Glaze 3
Glaze 2
Glaze 1
Glaze 16
Glaze 16
Glaze 16
Glaze 2
Glaze 2
Pinchpots

New pinchpots!!

It’s been long time since we posted something on our blog, but today we finaly took some pictures of our latest work. This is what we made with blue, green, white and violet glazes made by David.

Vivid violet small pinchpot on a plate
Lavander violet Roots bowl
Smalvivid violet pinchpots on a plate
Spotty white Roots bowl
Smokey black and white teabowl
Lagoon turquize mug
Dark shadows teabowl
Blue shades mugs
River blue black coffee cups
Lavander violet small pinchpot
Lavander violet small pinchpot
Roots small pinchpot
Pinchpots

Black Pinchpots

Moment mug, 2017
Handle of Moment mug
Big blue bowl, 2017
Blue mugs. 2017
Red bowls, 2017
Magic blue mug , 2018
Black roots mugs, 2017
Magic blue bowls, 2017
Moon Quarter coofee mugs, medium size, 2018
Moon Quarter coofee mugs, different sizes, 2018
Moon Quarter coofee mugs, big size, 2018
Moon Quarter coofee mugs, espresso size (small), 2018
White Roots Pinchpots, 2018

Here are some black stoneware pinchpots that we made this winter: bowls in different sizes, mugs and plates with some of our tipical glazes that we developed by ourselves.

We could say this style of pottery is tipical for us, for example we make different variations of Moment mug for a few years now, we actually make them in three different sizes, the smallest is great for black coffee, the medium and  large size for white coffee or tea. The handle of this mug is also very special, it takes quite some precise work and skill to make it.

Also tipical is the metal looks that we get with combination of ceramic body and glazes. What else could we say about our black pots? As all of them are made with pinching technique we could say they are sort of primitive but on the other hand they are very thin which makes them elegante and  timeless in terms of design. Pinching is one of most ancient techniques of making pottery. Pots are shaped very slowely, completely by hands… pinch, pinch, pinch until you like the shape and make it thin enough. For us this is sort of meditation and is great mental therapy 🙂

 

woodfired ceramics

Project: Woodfired!

 

Copper Age Chawan, 2017
Copper Age Chawan, 2017
Blue Chawan, 2017
Copper Age Chawan, 2017
Copper Age Chawan, 2017
Copper age tea bowls, 2017
Copper age tea bowls, 2017
Copper age tea bowls, 2017
Copper age tea bowls, 2017

Lately we’ve been working on our woodfire kiln. It’s actually a small test kiln inspired by japanese anagama. We fired it for three times, the results were better after every next firing, but the kiln fell a part after the last try, so probably we’ll not be able to fire it again. Anyway our plan for the future is to build a bigger kiln made of bricks.

It’s a special expedition every time we go woodfiring. We go to Kozarisce, where we used to live and where we started with our ceramics. There is David’s grandmothers house in this rural area of Slovenia. Kozarisce is a small village with a big castle surrounded by wast woods. Wild animals live in the woods and also the brown bear. Better not go to far in the woods at night! Ha ha!

It’s a few days project every time we are firing. Preparations have to be made, put the kiln together, make some improvements with the fire place, prepare the pieces and loading. Usually it takes one day. Since we go there together with our daughter, David does most of the “fire work”.

Here are some results of firing, we reached 1230 °C and the total firing time was 24 hours  in the first attempt and 28 hours in the last attempt.

 

Indian summer chawan/teabowl, 2017
Indian summer chawan/teabowl, 2017
Loaded kiln
Night fire!
Fire place

 

 

Glazes

Madeira glaze

This glaze is made of clay that our friend brought from the volcanic island of Madeira. The surface is brownish with spotts and when applied in thin layer it comes out darker, it’s matt and it doesn’t flow at firing temperature of 1250 ºC.

 

On this bowl (top to bottom): iron glaze, chalk glaze and Madeira slip
Slip made of Madeira clay
Madeira slip, the back mug is darker because the slip is applied in thin layer
Glazes

Završnica Glaze

Saved teapot and two mugs
On tester, it looks great when applied on horizontal surface
Mugs sticked to the plate
Sticked for sure!

We had quite some unhappy results with the dirt that we picked up in the valley of Završnica. The dirt contains probably a lot of calcium carbonate sands, which makes it very liquid when firing on high temperatures. David applied too much of this limestone sand pieces, because he wanted the glaze to flow. Teapot and mugs sticked to the  plate and we couldn’t save them. Teapot and two mugs will be ok for our home use.

Glazes

Strunjan Salina Glaze

Last week we went to Strunjan where salt is still produced in traditional salt pans. Strunjan’s salt pans are actually a part of Sečovlje Salina Nature Park. There we picked up some dirt that we found around salt-fields, so we would use it as glaze. Last year we picked up some dirt in Sečovlje salt pans and use it as glaze which came out great. So we tought the glaze from Strunjan’s dirt will be the same, but actually the Strunjan Salina glaze is completely different. It’s brownish and it gets glossy when applied in thick layer. We like it! And we will use it in the future, maybe we combine it with other glazes as well.

Strunjan salt pans
David and Vita picking up dirt around salt pans

And the results:

Strunjan Salina glaze on tester
Inside of a bowl
Strunjan Salina glaze on black stoneware, David applied the dirt in a very thick layer (with his hands, no brush!)

 

Glazes

Crackle glaze

With this glaze it’s all about shrinkage trick. Glaze is mostly made out of porcelain and ball clay, so it needs longer soaking time. It’s fired between cone 8 and 9, depends of procentage of the ingredients. During the firing process its shrinkage is bigger than the shrinkage of clay itself. It makes beautiful surface of melted cracks and little craters. Its downside is that it can deform thin objects.

Neverless this glaze is perfect for combining with other colour glossy glazes. It just makes amazing unpredictable effects.

Crackle chawan I, 2016
Crackle chawan II, 2016
Moon craters mugs, 2016
Crackle chawan III
Moon craters mugs, 2016
woodfired ceramics

Woodfired ceramics

 

Loading woods
Watch out! It’s hot!
Janjagama fire!
Janjagama fire
Woodfired tea bowls, 2015
Woodfired plates, 2015
Woodfired big plate, 2015
Woodfired chawans, 2015
Woodfired chawans, 2015
Woodfired big bowl, 2015
Woodfired sculptures, on exhibition, Layer house in december 2015
Woodfired teapot with mugs
Woodfired chawans, 2015

In november 2015 David went to Janja Gora, Croatia to fire some ceramics he made in a special woodfire kiln similar to the japanese anagama. The kiln is named Janjagama. It was David’s long time wish to fire ceramics in a high tempearture wood kiln. Someday he would like to build his own kiln, he already has plans made!

It was a great experience as the people he met there were very nice and hospitable.

Firing ceramics in this way is very hard work, it takes about two days of loading the kiln with woods to reach temperatures over 1300 °C. And you have to know how much and when to load the kiln. David says you have to listen to the kiln and the winds also and it will tell you when to load woods.

When the final temperature is reached (1311 °C), the kiln has to cool and it takes about one week.

Some pieces didn’t come out as imagined because David made the glazes too strong, so they didn’t melt as expected. But it doesn’t matter, he knows now how to make them just perfect. Some of the pieces that he didn’t like he burned again in our electric kiln.

Some woodfired pieces came out just amazing, we can see “the way of fire”, ashes melted and on some pieces the effects are the result of ashes mixed with glazes that David made.

There are some fotos of the firing process, loading the big Janjagama:

David loading the kiln
A lot of space inside!
Empty kiln Janjagama