This past week I spent my time in the studio on two main projects that I’ve been itching to get out onto the clay.

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Step one was starting by throwing this composite vase. Three separate pieces were made (foot, belly, neck) to be put together to complete the form. This way of ‘building’ larger vessels is an old method used to create large scale pottery that would be too big to throw in one piece. I picked up the technique several years ago but never really used it in my own work until early in the start of 2020.

Step two was starting to carve into the surface (which I purposely threw thicker) and keeping it wet so that I wouldn’t have trouble with each piece drying at different rates.

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I dug away at the surfaces to create an underwater scene of trout in their habitat. The final vase is now drying and will be ready to bisque in roughly 2 weeks as I continue to watch it and make sure the process goes evenly.

Project two was based on slightly more basic imagery but has been on my back burners for a while now.

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Something every fly fisher will admit to loving is when trout come to the surface of the water during a hatch or after rain, and ‘sip’ bugs off the surface. It means good fishing is about to happen and watching the fish rise all around you seriously gets the blood pumping. I threw this bellied jar and lid, and then added on by rolling a thin slab and shaping it into the form of a brown trout just breaking the surface to take a grasshopper fly. To compensate for the extra weight being added on and to avoid air pockets the vessel wall where the fish is added was cut out from the inside.