88. Christine Shadic, built-up vase

 88. Christine Shadic, built-up vase

Shadic is a Boston-area potter and ceramics teacher. For more on her and other examples of her work, see her page at www.feetofclaypottery.com.

White clay, brown glaze, foot ring and base left unglazed. Weight: 422 g (15 oz). Rim diameter: 3.7 cm (1-1/2 in); maximum diameter: 8 cm (3-1/8 in); foot ring diameter: 3.7 cm (1-1/2 in). Height: 18.2 cm (7-1/4 in).

This piece was constructed from four separate pieces of clay: the base, walls, funnel, and a collar button. The base is a shallow bowl that appears to be wheel-thrown. A foot ring was created by hollowing out the base to a depth of 1 cm (3/8 in); on the exterior, the ring is about an eighth of inch high. The walls of the base rise in a concave arc to the rim of the base, which is 7.7 cm (3 in) in diameter and 2.5 cm (1 in) above the bottom.  The walls of the piece were formed from a rectangular sheet of clay. At the bottom the pot is circular, but it grows into a rough square as the walls reach the shoulder, which is highly irregular in shape. The shoulder is around 12.2 cm (4-7/8 in) above the base. The “sides” of the square vary in length from  5.6  to  6.6 cm (2-1/4 – 2-5/8 in). At each corner of the square there is a protruding bump where the clay was bent inward above the shoulders. From the shoulders, the clay has been folded in to from a rough four-sided pyramid, rising to the neck, which is 15.4 cm (6-1/8 in) above the base and 2.5 cm (1 in) wide. At the neck, it appears that sections of the slab were removed, much like the way darts are formed in sewing, to allow the slab to be folded. A truncated funnel was tucked inside the neck. It is straight-sided, rising at a steep angle from the neck to the rim, and 2 cm (7/8 in) tall. Finally, the button is a rough circle of flat clay affixed at the junction of the neck and the funnel and two of the seams forming the pyramidal structure at the top (see the third photo from the bottom).

The base and interior of the foot ring were left unglazed. The brown glaze on the exterior appears to have been applied to the walls using cheesecloth. The weave of the fabric is clearly visible. The brown glaze pooled in crevices and pulled away from edges, creating dark brown lines and patches of white, where the color of the clay shows through. It’s difficult to see into the interior, but it appears to have been coated with the brown glaze as well. The exterior surface is quite smooth and shiny; a clear glaze or a luster may have been used. The exterior walls of the base were not glazed in brown but were coated with the clear glaze. The orange marks on the base probably resulted from stray fumes during the firing process.

A gorgeously eccentric piece.

Purchased at the annual winter sale at Feet of Clay Pottery, Brookline, Massachusetts, December 2019.