Bourry Box Vase #26121

Fired directly beneath the Bourry Box of the Sasukenei Kiln in Weimar, this vase met the most intense atmosphere the chamber has to offer. In a Bourry Box logs burn on a raised grate that drives heat and flame downward onto the vessels below. It is a demanding position, where wood ash melts into the clay and falling debris presses its own marks into the surface.

The form was thrown with an angular shoulder and finished with a double-walled rim. Before firing, one half was coated in a soda porcelain slip and the lower body in a heavy red iron oxide slip. In the kiln the two slips took the atmosphere in completely different directions. On the sheltered side, the soda porcelain settled into a pale, glassy skin, streaked with green where light ash melted into it. The flame-facing side lies buried under a thick, crusted deposit of ash, matte and rough to the touch, while the iron slip beneath bled downward in rust and amber rivulets. Between them, cooler passages of lilac and grey flashing drift across the bare clay, caught by salt and soda vapour.

Lower on the wall, debris that fell during the firing fused straight onto the surface and stays there as a raised, blackened scar. The vessel deformed slightly and the foot rim cracked in part, and it is these traces that carry the story of the firing. Despite them, the piece is watertight and holds water without leaking, ready for a single stem or a quiet place on a shelf.

Height: 27 cm · Width: 15 cm