A Hand Drawn and Glazed Turquoise Porcelain American Beautyberry Bowl

This American Beautyberry Bowl Measures:

5-1/2” wide x 2-7/8” high. (13.9cm X 7.3cm)
Holds approximately 2 cups of liquid (16 ounces).

This American Beautyberry Bowl was wheel-thrown with Sio-2 Lagoon Turquoise Blue Porcelain Clay.
We did not color this porcelain ourselves; it is colored by the manufacturer.

BOWL OUTSIDE:
If you include the dark, glossy rim, this bowl has five (5) distinct bands of patterns  and colors.
Let's start at the bottom, right at the foot ring.
I am starting something new to our handmade porcelain pottery - a narrow footring.
Sometimes I feel that handmade pottery has clunky footings; the pottery that HAS footings. Some potters keep flat pot bottoms, but for some reason, I am partial to a footring.
There are many technical reasons why footings are important, however, I am drawn to the aesthetic of the footring. It adds a visual element, defining the base of the pot and creating a more finished look. I also like how the footring raises the pot up off the surface, and allows a smaller area to touch the surface on which the pot sits.
Less scratches, perhaps?
I think the pottery is better protected from scratches, as well as the "table" the pottery sits on.
Also, I sand all of our pottery on our potter's wheel, mounted diamond disk.
As the wheel whirls around, it sands the footring very smooth, hopefully avoiding scratches.
Sometimes we sand the bottom, manually with a fine grit sandpaper, depending on the  depth of the footring, and how narrow it is.

Now that we have our footring explained, let's move up a ring:

The clay we used for this series of pots is manufactured by Sio-2.
Since we are colored porcelain clay ceramicists, we color our own porcelain clay.
However, this 33 pound, or 15 kg (three - 5 kg packages) of porcelain has been colored by Sio-2. 
This series utilizes Sio-2's Lagoon; a turquoise blue porcelain clay body. We HAD to give this beautiful color a go, especially when I kept thinking about the turquoise blue color - so beautiful!
All of the pieces in this series have this turquoise colored porcelain as our base color.
Here is a more detailed look at Sio-2 Turquoise Blue Porcelain Clay.

The first band up from the footring is, stripes.
After the first firing (Cone 04; 1932 degrees Fahrenheit), a lot of very narrow tape was strategically adhered to the bisque pot . Each stripe points to the center of the bowl's bottom.
Alternate pale lilac and turquoise green stripes.
Turquoise blue porcelain can be seen where the tape was.

The second band up from the footring, is also a taped design; a little more detailed design, utilizing horizontal and vertical stripes. This design is a satin dark umber  with turquoise porcelain visible where the tape was.

The third band up from the footring consists of American Beautyberries.
I find it interesting how the berries clump together in between the leaves. The berries can be eaten, according to my references, but they are tart, and usually used in jams.
These berries are created using the sgraffito technique and purple and green underglaze. 

I noticed a small air pocket under one of the leaves, so I've discounted this bowl.
The air pocket is not noticeable, unless you feel for it, but I know it's there.

Please see "How It's Made" Section for sgraffito technique.

The fourth band up is the checkered band under the rim. This band really surprised me, as I was hesitant to use this much contrast. I really like the checkered band, and plan on using this type of contrast on future bowls.

The fifth band up, is the rim, described below.

BOWL INSIDE:
The inside of this American Beautyberry bowl is a very pale blue, with swirls clearly visible on the inside bottom of the bowl.
At the inside rim, where the flux glaze overlaps the dark purple (eggplant) rim, a band of tiny purple speckles was created, just below the rim.

RIM:
Glossy purple Eggplant.

Wheel-thrown Sio-2 Lagoon Turquoise Blue Porcelain Clay.
Glazed with lead-free, dinnerware safe glazes.
Fired to Cone 6 (2232º Fahrenheit).
I recommend washing these hand crafted pieces by hand.
My signature is engraved on the bottom of the bowl.

"How It's Made"

This plate was created on the potter's wheel using Sio-2 Lagoon Turquoise Blue Porcelain and a carving technique called sgraffito.

Sgraffito is an Italian word meaning - "to scratch".
A layer of slip (wet clay) is applied to the surface of the pottery, while the vessel is leather hard. (not wet and not yet bone dry).
A design is carved into the wet slip using a metal ball tool. This etching reveals the colored porcelain clay underneath the colored slip, that the pottery is wheel-thrown or hand built with. 
When creating a sgraffito piece of pottery, the design is not flush to the surface.
The colored slip is slightly raised, and the etched design does not get filled in.
The lead free, dinnerware safe clear glaze on top of the etched design, creates a smooth, shiny surface.

All of our handmade pottery is either wheel-thrown or handbuilt in our North Carolina home studio.