How the Striped Fish Platter was Made

First, I threw a platter in porcelain on a potter's wheel. The next day when the pot was partially dry, drier than usual to prevent the flat part of the plate from collapsing, I trimmed the pot to make the foot on the bottom. The pot was bisque fired to cone 08.

I wanted fish with stripes going in different directions so I searched my files until I found fish that seemed like they would go well together in both color and stripe pattern. I worked out the placement in pencil, drew the fish, then began to paint with underglazes.

I did the inside fish first, resting my hand on the platter. Then I did the outer fish, resting my hand on the platter rim. Working in this order, I avoided smudging the underglazes.

When I finished painting, I applied liquid latex between the fish to isolate the porcelain. Then I submerged the platter in transparent glaze. It's important to do this quickly so the glaze is thinly applied. If the glaze is too thick, the painting will lose definition. When the glaze was dry, I peeled off the latex. I painted wax resist over the transparent glaze, let it dry for a day, then dipped the platter in a blue glaze. If the blue glaze is too thick, it will blur into the edges of the fish; if it's too thin, the color will be weak. I cleaned up glaze drops on the wax and the edges between the two glazes. The pot was ready to fire.

Here's the finished pot. I don't have any complaints about how it came out...

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