Making a flower pot

Feeling a little down this week, I decided that I’d restart my ceramics study at Shiho with the wonderfully gracious in-laws. My first project is a flower pot for the new apartment. I am going with something fairly simple, a straight cyclinder with 3 feet. Okaasan suggested a white glaze on top of black clay.

I’ll try to document the 6 stages on the blog. The first is Form, which involves creating a flat base, and then adding about eight rope-shapes one-by-one, and smoothing everything together. Mine was a bit uneven (see above), but otoosan sensei straightened it up!

Six stages for simple pottery

1. 成形　Form (“seikei”)

2. 削る　Sharpen (“kezuru”)

3. 乾燥   Drying (“kansou”)

4. 素焼き　Biscuit frying (“suyaki”)

5. 釉がけ Glazing (“yuugake”)

6. 窯焚き Firing (“kamataki”)