One For Glazenerd........ How To "fix" A Commercial Clay Body

[Joseph Fireborn]

Very awesome. Thanks for the entire process. This is a different bottle than the one on the first page. Do you have any shots of that one as well? I liked the surface that had all those cracks in it. Curious how you glazed it and how the fire changed it. If I am asking to much no worries! I know your a busy busy man. I am just enthralled.

[Guest JBaymore]

Yes, different bottle.  But still a cracked surface.  I'll get more stuff up as soon as I can.

 

best,

 

............john

[Marcia Selsor]

is that pearlite in the pot on the right? I got something like that on an experimental tea bowl in April's firing. It is an intriguing surface. I love wood firing. I do it every chance I can.

 

marcia

[glazenerd]

Okay Professor: now I get to ask a question. I know your history and attraction to kao'ling. However, there is also a personal aesthetic going on here: care to elaborate?

 

Tom

[Guest JBaymore]

Tom,

 

Good question.  I'll let this statement I did for a solo exhibition about 10 years ago maybe shed some light..................................

 

 

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John Baymore

 

 

When I was thirteen years old, I spent the whole summer camping in the American southwest.  With their varied earthy color tones and rugged contrasting textures, the desert and canyon landscapes of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah had a profound effect upon me.  It was the first time I had actually seen Mother Earth without the verdant green clothing of the rain soaked northeast.  She was beautiful.

 

Not too long after that, I discovered the expressive medium of clay.  I had found in ceramics an art form that was directly and intimately linked to those amazing vistas I had experienced.  The clay I handled was an intimate, integral component of the Earth, and my ceramic wares were born of fire, much like the genesis of the Earth itself.  I was enthralled.

 

In college I was soon exposed to the diverse world of Japanese ceramics, what then seemed “exotic†traditions from half a planet away.  In them, I found a strong aesthetic appreciation embracing the rich but subtle colors and dramatic textures that I so loved.  From study of claywork seen through the Japanese people’s eyes, I learned to really see the nature of my materials and processes more clearly. 

 

The study of Japanese ceramic works by artists like Hamada, Kawaii, Arakawa, and Kaneshige soon guided me to wood firing as a finishing process for my own work.  Wood firing embraced primal forces at work in creation, and gave me a tool that would capture in a microscopic way the tonality and variegation of those southwestern vistas.  Wood firing helped to always keep my claywork connected to its true source; the Earth.

 

Many years of wood firing my wares then lead me to recognition and opportunities in Japan.  Visiting with and learning from highly skilled potters in places like Bizen, Shigaraki, Seto, and Mashiko I was able to expand on my growing technical and aesthetic understanding of clay, fire, kilns, and pots.  Working, firing and living for extended periods at Kanayama fostered the maturing of concepts that until then I really only understood from the outside.  All of these experiences on the other side of Mother Earth have helped me understand more fully the inseparable, inter-related nature of object and process, with the hand and eye of the maker as the catalyst of creation.

 

Whether in Japan or here in America, the raging inferno of the wood flame in the kiln has brought things full circle back to the volcanic origins of Mother Earth’s surface that so inspired me as a youth.  As I approach forty years as a potter since the spark of my creative fires were lit, and sixty years as a guest upon Mother Earth, these insights and experiences have served to inspire my ideas and fuel my lifetime career in clay.  They continue to resonate.

 

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[Guest JBaymore]

is that pearlite in the pot on the right?

 

No idea Marcia.  The only piece that is mine in the photo is the bottle.

 

best,

 

.................john

[glazenerd]

John:

Memories of the Mesa Verde are coming back after reading your statement... I get it

 

Nerd

[Guest JBaymore]

On that trip as a kid I got to travel out into the backcountry via horseback and crawl thru ruins near Mesa Verde that were not yet fully researched/excavated or open to the public in general.  Found old Indian pots in the dirt (left there).  For many years after that I went out to the Southwest every spring and explored the countryside.  Used to off-road a bit there and got out to some interesting places.

 

best,

 

..................john

[Guest JBaymore]

More continuing process shots........

 

Here is a more formal image of the bottle that was pictured above at the unloading day:

 

 

Here is a close up detail of the glaze and clay surface:

 

 

Here is the bottle seen in the earlier image of the greenware form:

 

 

The upper neck of the form is the same oribe glaze as the lower part..... but it got heavy fly ash deposit and that totally changed the color on most of the surface around the form.

 

Here is a close up detail of the glaze and clay surface on the second bottle form:

 

 

best,

 

...........................john

[Joseph Fireborn]

Fantastic sir. I can see the surface much better in these pictures. Awesome work. I imagine these are already going to galleries?