The pottery is made of stoneware clay that is fired three times. Most pieces are thrown on the wheel though I occasionally do a little handbuilding.

The pieces are made, dried, and then bisque fired to Cone 04. After bisque, they are glazed with a milky translucent shino glaze. The bright colored glazes are the same shino base glaze with mason stains added. The glazed ware is then fired in reduction to Cone 6. Once the glaze has been fired on, the line drawings are applied using a ceramic “ink” that I developed. The ink is drawn onto the pot using a variety of implements including a calligraphy pen, bamboo pen, brushes, and slip trailers. Then the work goes back into kiln, fired in oxidation to Cone 6 to melt the ink into the glaze. It is possible to keep doing additional decoration and refiring.

There are several things I like about this process. The shino glaze provides a delightful canvas for drawing on, full of reductiony goodness, speckles, and fine glaze crazing patterns. The character of the line is similar to pen-and-ink drawing, much more so than my brushwork ever did. And logistically it is nice because the work can pause at any stage without worrying about drying out. I also like that the clay, glaze, and drawings are all high-fired, durable, and non-toxic.

The research to make it all work took about a year once I was introduced by Paul Lewing to the mechanics of the overglaze calligraphy process. I’m currently developing a range of colored inks that work with this set of materials and firings. I’m also doing research into other base glazes, firing temperatures, and matching ink formulations. It would be nice to have a range of technical solutions for this process to share with other potters who might have different kilns and firing preferences.

If you’d like to learn more about the process as I’m ready to publish information and hold workshops, please sign up for my newsletter on the right.