This Week in the Studio, Making Green Leaves Urns

I've been making large and medium size urns this past week. Pictured is a tiny little finished keepsake urn being dwarfed next to the large and medium urns in process. 

After making (throwing) the urns and lids at the potters wheel I cover them with light plastic so they dry evenly. The urns and lids go back on the wheel to trim (carve) a foot on the bottom of the urn, and to further give shape to the lid. At this point they are ready to carve each little leaf into the porcelain.

Each urn takes about 40 minutes to carve the leaves... the perfect time to listen to podcasts or to sit outside on a warm sunny porch. (The latter isn’t happening anytime soon.) Over the weekend I carved three urns while watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. A big smile came to my face when I saw the huge moon jar holding the Olympic flame! (I guess you can see where my influences are from for this line of urns that I make). The traditional Korean Moon Jar is from the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), it's typically very large, made from porcelain with a milky white glaze to resemble the moon.

So nice to see pottery being celebrated in the public arena!