Pottery Chronicled

We recently completed Capitol Clay Arts Company's first featured artist workshop, Terra Sigillata with Keith Lahti, and the results were fantastic. The workshop was super-educational and Keith was a fantastic source of education, information and inspiration. He can teach a workshop at CCAC any time.

I was drawn to one of his pieces early in the workshop and followed it through the entire terra sig process. At left is the vase, still on the wheel, freshly thrown and featuring a very precise split lip opening. Beautiful.

Up next: Texture time. Keith used hand-made stamps, carving and taught techniques for adding delicate and bold accents of slip to add even more texture.

The photos show stamping in progress and the piece with all texture added. Now, we're ready for the terra sig!

Now comes the science part! Terra sigillata is mixed, siphoned and ready for colorants.

The frothy pink mixture will produce an electric blue color while the green mixture turns, well, green.

The terra sig/colorant mixtures are then artfully applied. They can be brushed on or, as in the case at left, strategically applied with a spray gun. Keith shared spraying techniques that helped the potters apply the colorants to maximize the textured effects.

The pieces were then fired to cone 04 or about 1940 degrees. The firing really brings the color out and makes them pop. The pot at left is before firing; at right, after. Quite a difference! The strong blue was produced by the lovely pastel pink colorant which was cobalt carbonate. Guess it's not so unexpected.

So, now that you have this beautiful, richly colored finish, what do you do? Why not completely obliterate everything with black patina. At left: Keith brushes on the patina while Homaira looks on. The patina is brushed over the entire piece then, as the center photo shows, is sponged off until the desired color is achieved. At right: The piece with patina applied and sponged away. This looks very similar to how the piece will look when finished.

The inside of the piece is then glazed and fired, again, to cone 04.

At left: The beautiful finished piece.

And, that's a chronicle of the life of this piece. So, where is it now? In our lobby, generously gifted to Mike and I by Keith. We loved every minute of this workshop--as did all the students who participated. Keith, we'll display the piece proudly and, don't tell Mike, but I anticipate some shelf construction in his immediate future to create the ideal home.

And, as always, happy sigging.