Ray Bowl

This little bowl is not finished yet, it is going to an exhibition in North Carolina, and although very late, it will just emerge by the skin of its teeth on time. The kiln is on tomorrow and again on Sunday night.

The processes for making it have been many. The bowl is an evolved version of my huge flat rays which are made by slumping clay over a hump. I have thrown this one on the wheel and turned its bottom to make it curved. Then I carved away the rim to begin the look of a tail and a nose. Afterwards I covered the bowl in jet black slip, applying several layers, and then I did the same with the white slip. When they had dried so that I could touch without spoiling I carved the pattern through the white to reveal the black. Two firings will complete the bowl.

NB Slip is liquid clay which is coloured with metal oxides or in the case of the white, is dug out of the ground in Cornwall as is.