All are Welcome

We are firing up again!

Direction to Thow Kwang Pottery Jungle : Take MRT to Boon Lay Station. Hop on to bus 199 at the bus interchange. Alight the bus stop after the PIE flyover along Jalan Bahar, just before the turn to Nanyang Avenue (NTU). You can see a small road on the left side with huge pots at the corner before the bus stop.

Five Vases #01, #07 to #10

The vase series with shino glazes outside. The inside is mixed glaze and no glazes for the lower portions so I hope there will be unpredictable salting result reacting with the clay body direct.

Bowl #12

This is #12. Before and after apply coloured clay slips and transparent glaze on Saturday, 12 Feb.

Tall pieces #02, #03, #05 & #06

Tall pieces from #02 to #06 plus one more #11, total 6 pieces made in three different batches. #04 is shorter and is not shown here in this picture.

With the expert potters from China

This sketch of Ah Koon at the potter wheel was probably the first sketch I did in 2011. These experts came from China. Ah Koon threw very big pots, the other wedged the clay in a effortless manner, what a team!

preparation for the next firing

Pottery Jungle lower level workshop occupied by two potters from China for a short stay just to work on big jars. Upper level workshop occupied by Steven Low, resident potter and helper, Yang Ce. Other clay artists come only on weekends for the preparation of the recent wood firing.

Result of firing

I did not post the result for May 2010 firing because many of my sculptural pieces did not survive the glazing. They cracked when they were just too dry for the glazes. Lesson learnt : wet the greenwares with wet sponge and work very fast when pouring the glaze. However, the result of the following ‘bread’ series was good.

kiln condition

After the firing session in May, the condition of the kiln was a great concern to most of us. The axis appeared to have misaligned and the interior was in quite a bad condition. Time to call in the experts for some maintenance.

getting ready for the wood firing

Time is running out. I have only this weekend to glaze all the pots. The wood firing will be next weekend on 28 to 29 May, 2010. Here are the pieces I made these few day at home every night till 1 to 2am after a long day at work. It is really tiring but rewarding too.