• Hand-built of stoneware clay, this vessel has and hound's tooth surface design, extruded handles and straps, and a thrown spout.
• Construction sequence: Fired to cone 06. Clear cone 6 glaze applied. Refired to cone 6. Mother of pearl and silver lusters applied. Fired again to cone 018.
• Size: 12.0" x 9.0" x 8".
• Date: 2005.
• Exhibited at Sherwood Gallery in Laguna Beach, CA.
• Illustrated in Niche Magazine 2005 within Artist's Profile.
• Sold.

Creative Process

• This work presented two new challenges for me. The photographs above show the sequence in its creation.
• I was interested in seeing if I could replicate the hound's tooth fabric in clay and I was also excited about creating my first zipper. This particular design had two zippers. For my first two zippers (on this piece), I actually made every single tooth by hand, one tiny fragment at a time! Then I scored and slipped each fragment onto the teabag! This took hours and hours of time. It was an insanely dificult and tedious procedure. I later discovered another technique which facilitated matters considerably. I now cast a real zipper in plaster and then press mold clay into this casting to create a beautiful whole zipper in clay. The newer teabags that call for a zipper have press mold zipper made of clay.
• The pattern for the Hound's Tea-th piece represented a different kind of challenge. After the work was formed and before it was fired, it was painted with white slip, as shown. Slip is a liquid white colored clay, prepared like a batter recipe. I painted the slip diretly onto the surface of the leather-hard clay. Then the hound's tooth pattern was created by hand-painting the pattern with black underglaze. Again this took hours and hours. I was happy with the results, but I am no loner interested in repeating it because I have mastered it and it is therefore no longer a challenge. I did the same thing when creating Polka-Dotted Plaid Pocket Purse. Designing and painting the plaid pattern took forever. Now that I know I can do this, I don't feel it would be a worthy or stimulating challenge to do it again. I am not interested in finding a fast way to make something for quick sale. I don't create for that reason.

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