Long-lost products of hillside garden claying

... so two years later, I found three unfired mugs wrapped in plastic in my garage. Dry and extremely brittle of course! Amazingly two survived the trip to the kiln and firing:

Here's a link to their genesis

Abundant jugs - fresh out of the kiln - with some quirks...

Wow, I am grateful for the way these jugs came out....colours, quirks and all! As Kim always says "say a prayer to the kiln goddess!"

This one went to live with May in November

Jugs to pour abundance

There is something about a jug that is so full of generosity, just waiting to be poured out. This month I'm exploring with what quirks that abundance can flow.

wondering how this handle will survive firing?

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Stacking cylinders, and the power of mistakes

Celebrating Kim's return to health and the studio. Here's a piece from last year. Isn't it fun to see what happens when you stack several simple cylinders to form a tall vessel?

This one benefited from a couple of things you could call mistakes.

Firstly the cylinders weren't quite regular, so I had to turn the middle one upside down to get them to match. That led to the bamboo-type effect above.

Secondly I kind of dropped the vessel into the glaze, while struggling to immerse something so long (about 45 cm prior to second firing) into the liquid. And that created some of the drips and blobs that give it a bit more character.

Biggest bowl

So this one got nice and big and it is thin, too. Amazing process working with something this large and delicate. So much luck involved!

Here it is (below, before first firing) after adding a chocolate slip, then dribbling wax in the lines you see and washing out the grey "valleys" between the waxy bits.

Starting to work on bigger bowls - 2012

This was the year of bigger bowls!

Snow day in Joburg 7 August 2012

This was a special day in the pottery studio - firstly because my nephew Amiel visited on his way home to New York from Namibia, and secondly because it snowed heavily - only the second time I know of since 1980 that it snowed in Joburg.

Amiel Middelmann visits Kim Sacks studio 7 August 2012

First time ceramics for Amiel!

Snow day in Kim Sacks yard

And can you imagine what it was like for this African sculptured pot and flowers to be inundated with snow?

Lastly, one of my favourite pots of the year, ready for glaze firing with snow outside: