A Hand Carved Ranunculus Bowl with Checkered Design. Wheel-thrown Ceramic Pottery.

This Hand Carved Ranunculus Pot Bellied Bowl or Bud Vase with Taped Checkered Design
Measures: 4-1/4" wide x 3-1/4" high. (10.79cm x 8.25cm)

Wheel-thrown on the potter's wheel with trimmed footring on the bottom.
Neriage effect utilizing red and light apricot porcelain clay.
Four carved ranunculus flower blossoms around the top circumference.
Alternating top of flower blossom with bottom of flower blossom.

Taped design all around this round bowl with red neriage background on the predominant top portion of the bowl, and light apricot neriage background on the very bottom of the bowl (approximately 1" from footring upwards).
Carved ranunculus are glazed with lead free clear.
Purple checks are glazed with an Eggplant glossy glaze.
The rest of the checkered design has no clear on it, and is slightly rougher to touch than the glazed portion

Wheel thrown and hand glazed by me.
Standard 365 Porcelain.
Glazed with lead free, dinnerware safe clear glaze.
Please hand wash this bowl.
Kiln fired to cone 6 (2232 degrees F.)
Engraved with my signature on the bottom.

How it’s Made

This handmade decorative and functional round bowl took quite awhile to make, but the process was enjoyable.

It began its journey on the potter's wheel.
Two colored porcelain clay colors - red and light apricot.
They spun around on the wheel and where the color lands as the sides are pulled up, is all but a mystery.
I can aim the colors, but it is still up to fate where they end up.
This final color placement is what determines where each decoration begins and ends.
Usually there is a swirl of color on the pottery, but this one landed with not much of a swirl.
That meant I could really decorate this without the swirl distracting the checks.

After wheel-throwing, a footring was carved into the bottom of the bowl.

At leather hard stage (not dry and no longer wet clay) four ranunculus flower blossoms were carved into the circumference of the bowl, alternating between the top half of a blossom with the bottom half of a blossom.

Into the bisque firing after sufficient drying. (1945ºF kiln temperature Cone 04)

After the initial firing, the bowl was taped, and taped some more, with a very narrow detailing tape I purchase online. This taping is the most time consuming, as the colored clay placement allowed me to decorate the entire non-carved areas.
The taped areas create negative spaces, which are glazed with different colors. Three thin coats for each color.
After the tape is removed (the fun part), the design is exposed.

Into the second firing (2232ºF kiln temperature).
After the bowl enters the kiln for the final glaze firing, and kiln cooling.

Open the kiln and . . . VOILA! EXHALE!