Throw, Facet, Throw: How to Create Beautiful Cups with Undulating Texture Frank shares his process for making his faceted tea bowls and some tips for working with fritware! Frank Krevens

Frank Krevens had been making faceted cone 10 porcelain work for many years, but after a recent move, he lost access to the high fire kiln. That, and a concern for the environmental impact he was having with the higher fired work, led him to try to develop his palette for low firing. His solution was fritware, a clay body developed in the middle east to mimic the visual and tactile qualities of Chinese porcelain.

In today’s post, an excerpt from the Ceramics Monthly archive, Frank shares his process for making his faceted tea bowls and some tips for working with fritware. – Jennifer Poellot Harnetty, editor

P.S. Make sure to check out the full article in the September 2015 issue of Ceramics Monthly or Frank Krevens’ White Fritware clay body recipe (and a base glaze that fits it!).

Not all clay bodies are suitable for the techniques I use to make this type of work. The fritware recipe I have developed takes both workability and budget into consideration. Even with this recipe I have found that attention to detail is key. Having the correct moisture level and curing time are critical to allow for the clay to stretch so drastically without tearing or slumping over while working on the wheel.

After wedging the clay thoroughly, I immediately sit at the wheel and begin working. I have found that the clay is more elastic if I eliminate the time between wedging and centering. In other words, I am no longer able to wedge up several balls of clay before sitting at the wheel. I wedge enough clay for one piece at a time, no matter what the size may be.

Once the clay is centered, I begin by opening the center with one pull, then immediately begin moving the clay upward until I have a tall, slender, thick-walled cylinder. After horizontally marking the start and the finish lines of my pattern area, I begin faceting the cylinder with diagonal cuts from the top line down and then from the bottom line up (Figure 1).

After completing the faceted pattern, I make a double line just below the rim as a way to separate the pattern from the rim. This double line also remains parallel to the rim, which becomes wavy as I stretch the form. This gives the piece a sense of completeness by capping off the energetic undulations created by cutting and stretching the cylinder (Figure 2).

My outside hand remains at the wheel head, so I do not disturb the freshly cut pattern on the walls of the vessel. My inside hand enters the small opening gradually as I begin stretching the top section of the cylinder before stretching the bottom section (Figure 3).

Faceting and stretching a cylinder allows me to match the organic form with the visual color and texture. The images of finished pieces and the glaze details at left are examples of this connection between form and surface, and clay and glaze. All of these glazes were created with one base glaze that is extremely low in alumina, which yields more saturated colors as well as a lower melting point in the glaze. This work was fired to cone 04 with a 30-minute hold at peak temperature. However, I plan to experiment with holds at certain temperatures as the kiln cools as an effort to expand the textural qualities in the glazes.

**First published in 2015.