62. Mark Mancuso, vase

62. Mark Mancuso, vase

 

Marc Mancuso has been making ceramics since 1988 and teaches ceramics in the Boston area. He has worked in Boston as a production potter, sold works at juried local fairs, and exhibits regionally. He states that his approach to making objects can be simultaneously whimsical and methodical, but is usually more one than the other.  For instructional videos and pictures of his work, see his website  www.marcmancuso.com and his Flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcmancuso/sets/.

Tan clay, blue and white glazes; base left unglazed. Weight: 456 g (1 lb). Rim diameter: 7.3 cm (2-7/8 in); maximum diameter: 8.6 cm (3-3/8 in); foot ring diameter: 6.8 cm (2-11/16 in). Height: 13.5 cm (5-3/8 in).

This sits on the base of the ring foot. The foot ring is approximately 0.6 cm (1/4 in) high on the outside. It has been hollowed out to a depth of a sixteenth of an inch on the inside. “Mancuso” was incised into the base. The pot slants outward and upward from the foot at about a 45-degree angle to a height of 1.3 cm (1/2 in) above the base. At this point the diameter is 8.2 cm (3-3/4 in). The walls then rise in more or less a straight line to the maximum diameter at the shoulder, which is 12 cm (4-3/4 in) above the base. They then slant inward to the rim, again at a 45-degree angle.

The pot was glazed inside and out with the exception of the base and a narrow ring on the exterior just above the base. From there upward and on the interior, a white ground was applied. The exterior was then glazed irregularly with a blue glaze; the blue color is darker in some areas than other. In a few places, there are splashes of white glaze over the blue. On the exterior from the rim down to the beginning of the straight side walls, the pot is covered with a series of narrow, vertical white lines, spaced unevenly but closely around the pot. On his Flickr page, Mancuso demonstrates at technique called “refractory string ceramic design.”  That process may have been used to create this decoration. There are brown lines around the circumferences of the rim, the shoulder, and the lower edge of the straight walls. Throughout the exterior surface is flecked with black spots.

A beautifully conceived and decorated, intriguing pot.

Purchased at the annual spring sale at Feet of Clay Pottery, Brookline, Massachusetts, April 2018.