confined from page f

My work falls into three distinct catego-
ries: production, one-of-a-kind pottery, and
sculpture. | believe I can wring a style out
of these three elements. Some may think
I'tn sould man, but all elements of my
work, in some fashion, blend whimsy and
irony in an amusing way.

Certainly my teapots, a combination of
thrown functional ware and slip cast
moulds, are {at this point) my most recog-
nizable work. And yet, I don't pursue this
work on adaily basis. This summer! have
a show at the Gallery of BC Ceramics
called Serving i Right with Maggi Knecr.
The exhibition is about presenting food
and drink, 4 familiar theme for me. The
challenge is mot to reproduce the teapots
from past shows, but to continue to push
the work's boundaries to something fresh,

In May 2002 I had a show at the Seymour
Art Gallery, Troveds ip Colour, a show of
completely sculpeural work. The ten pieces
all used minivans slip cast from a mould

—_

een

a

(Clive Tucker Virgin Tea (leapal and stand)
2000. Wheel thrown ard slip cast ponocelain.
Sprayed and dipped glazes. Lustre, Fired to
cone 9 in oxidation and cone O17. H: 32.0cm

Clive Tucker

made from atoy Dodge Caravan. The vans
were incorporated into various ironic and
whimsical sculptures. My obsession with
minivans actually began as a result of
driving to work everyday (notin atninivan),
I just began slip casting hundreds of vans
and eventually as I considered them, the

T tend to work on a broad front playing
with many ideas and images sinvultane-
ously. Perhaps this is why the traditional
view of astyle has eluded me. I’ ve heard it
said that mid-career is the ideal place to be
as a potter, That being true I have years to
develop a style, Maybe I could be like

sculptures presented themselves, Picasso and have many periods of style.
Clive Tucker
Technical Stuff
l usually throw with white stoneware of Glaze Recipes
porcelain, either Plainsman M370), P300,
Laguna cone § B-mix or Clay Art Center Peter Holtzen Mottled purple and
English Grolleg 6. I do some slip casting, blue cone 6 electric, matte

It's auseful technique, saves alot of sculpt-
ing time and enables working with multi-
ples. I make casting slip from dry plains-
man M370, and I use commercial moulds
and make my own.

lenjoy glazing one I get started. Imix my
own glazes and develop them slowly, bus
I'm not restricted to them. Commercial
stains, glazes amd lustre can add a little
extra pizzazz, My favourite glaze recipes
come from Lana Wilson's book, and for
good functional glazes I’m making my
way through Ron Roy's book adapting his
glazes to my palette, | have 30 or more
glazes; 7 blue, 6 green, 5 black, 2 white, 3
clear, 2 red/pink, 3 brown, 3 yellow, afew
textured cone 04, a clay box of various
commercial glazes (Duncan Concepts amd
E-Z.and some Spectrum) and a dozen cone
O17 lustres and enamels.

1 use a combination of brushing, dipping.
and spraying glazes. All my work is cone
6 and I’ve found the most interesting way
to glaze is to spray layers of several glazes
on each piece. I constantly test one glaze
over another, which means that with 30
glazes there are approximately 900 over-
and-under combinations. Spraying is great
for fading one colour into another and
making a gradual transition from matte to
gloss. Spraying this way leads to unique
results: no two similar pieces are ever
glared the same,

Citve Tucker

More of Clive’s work can be seen at www.clivetuckerpottery.com

1

Potters Guild of Botish Columbia Newsletter

The cobalt acts as both a colourant and a
flux; clay body heavily influences colour;
add to formula below: 6-12% silica for a
darker purple, 0.5-5% titanium dioxide for
mottled purple with green, 1-5%>bone ash
for rich blue, 0.25-5% manganese dioxide
for mottled gray, 1-3% tin oxide for lighter
purple.

Petalite 36
E.P.EK 17
Dolomite 17
Silica 10
Whiting 6

Cobalt oxide 8 to 10)

(Source: Lana Wilson Ceramics: Shape and
Surfaces, Handowts for the Potter, available
throwel authar or Seattle Pottery Supply, and
see www lanawilson.cam)

I find the glaze a little dry; it looks good at
almost cone 7, lt could use a bit more flux
maybe a bit of Gerstley borate or frit.

Here's another from an old acquaintance

of mine in Oakville Ontario,
Metallic Black Gloss cone 6 electric,
(soft cone 6)
E.P.K 5
Custer Spar 79
Whiting fi
Gerstley borate 10
Manganese Diowde 4
Cobalt oxide 2
Copper Carb =

Try refiring to cone 017 for a really metal-
lic Took.

February 2003