Tenmoku

But first- one of the better teapots from a pretty successful salt firing.
Now- it takes quite a lot to blow me away ceramically these days,but Sydney managed while we were unloading the salt kiln. He showed me a striking piece- a tenmoku [dark brown breaking to rust on edges] glaze that had been refired in a bisc firing,revealing beautiful and surprising shades of ochre yellows,oranges and browns- rather [in technique] like the struck silver nitrate crystal glazes I occasionally play with. I didn't have any tenmoku pots in my studio- I love the glaze,but,despite the fact that it shows of food well,people are notoriously reluctant to buy it [apart from other potters,especially those with electric kilns who can't do tenmoku] so I took this bowl of Netzer's [for those of you who know Netzer] and fired it in the next day's bisc.It's a hard glaze to photograph as well,but I hope you can see the rather dramatic transformation. Today's glaze kiln has a couple of hastily-glazed tenmoku bowls in it- more before-and-after shots,doubtless,to come. I'm impressed.