Summer Ceramics - First 2 Finished Items

I just remembered that I had not posted my ceramics from the summer drop-ins.  I have only 2 pieces finished, the remainder will need to be finished in September when courses resume.

One of the techniques I played with during the summer was pressing leaves into the clay to leave imprints, as in this bowl below :

1) This bowl was pressed with Davidii involucrata (Dove or handkerchief tree) leaves from my beloved "David" tree.  It was then slumped into a mould, and decorated in slip before removing the leaves.

I had a bit of an accident with this bowl.  We are not supposed to store away our ceramics while in the mould, so I rushed to dry and remove it within the same session, and when I added the foot, all was fine until I flipped it over, and it slumped onto the table.  There was not enough time to fix it, so I removed the foot and slumped it back into the mould, and stored it away anyhow.  If I had realized it was not dry enough, I would have left it upside down while it firmed up, and I would have had a nice foot on it.  So you can still see the ring where the foot was attached and removed.  The bowl still sits fairly nicely, I just needed to leave a larger area unglazed.  And since I let it dry in the damp cellar, I didn't get to stamping it, so I just carved my name into the bottom/side.

For the decoration, I used Turquoise and Blue slip.  The leaves were decorated after the bisque firing, using Green overglaze as an underglaze.  I brushed it into the veins, then wiped it away with a sponge, not trying to hard to wipe it clean, leaving a watercolour look to the leaves.  I also sponged the Green overglaze onto the rim.  Then the whole piece was dipped into Celadon glaze.  See this post for the finishing and glazing in progress.  I like this combination of the colours - what do you think?

Another technique I tried was pressing clay onto larger leaves from my banana tree, before it was brutally cut down by some animal :

2) This is the smaller of the two banana leaf platters I made.  I seem to remember I pressed the back of the banana leaf into the sheet of clay, cut around it (a bit wider), and then slumped the impressed sheet of clay face down over a bowl, to try to form the concave shape while it firmed up.  The veins of the banana leaf showed through too faintly, so I carved them with a sgraffito tool once leather hard.

The platter flattened a bit during bisque, and probably more during final firing, but it is will a nice practical shape and light weight, with just a bit of upturn on the edges.  I painted Green overglaze (as an underglaze) into the grooves, and wiped with a sponge, leaving a trace of the green on the whole leaf.  The glaze was then applied by brush, a layer of Oatmeal followed by a layer of Tam's Green. (See this post for the finishing and glazing.)  I like the colours, but I see that I will want to be more careful with my brush strokes on the next leaf.  I didn't get to it in time to stamp it, so I again carved my name into it.

It is such a long time to wait until end of September, when the studio opens again, but stay tuned for 4 more pieces.  Sadly, one of my plates went missing after sending it to be bisqued.  I really hope it reappears, but it doesn't seem likely now, since that was early July, and I looked for it a few times.