This piece, with the title, Spiral Convection Jar was completed earlier this year. It stands 55 cm tall and is about 31 cm wide. Both the making of the form, and the completion of the decoration were done in stages over the course of several weeks.

The first step is to throw a 12 lb. cylinder that has no base to it. The cylinder is then squared up, and a slab base is attached with feet at each corner. The pot is then returned to the wheel and a new section is added to the rim. When this new section stiffens up a bit another new section is added and so on until the form is completed. A lid is made, and then the whole pot dries for several weeks before bisque firing.

After the bisque firing the interior of the pot is glazed, as well as the upper and lower sections with an iron based glaze. The pattern is then drawn on the exterior in pencil. The pattern is inspired by convection patterns in liquids called Rayleigh-Bénard patterns. Half of the pattern is then painted with a black glaze.

The pot then goes back into the kiln and is fired to cone 10 reduction. After the firing the rest of the pattern receives an application of 23K gold leaf. From start to finish, about 100 hours to make the piece.

The lower image shows a close-up of the glazing and gold leaf. The iron glaze has a variety of titanium, rutile and iron washes brushed on before the final firing.