Agateware Pottery

Richard has been throwing pots on a wheel for around 40 years, so he's had the opportunity to perfect his craft, and it shows. This is a close up of the colors in my vase, with all the color being in the clay and the glaze being clear.

Richard begins by stacking the colors into what is called, quite appropriately, a "color stack" and then goes to work on the clay. The slide show below shows how the clay is worked, although those are not the colors in this particular vase.

He hand fashions each vase individually - no two are ever identical, partly because of being hand thrown, and partly because the colors of the stacks are never going to turn out exactly alike. This is one reason this particular vase was so appealing to me; there's just something wonderful about how this particular vase turned out. Notice how the brown and blue stripes are of differing widths near the bottom, while more white and thinner stripes appear near the top.

After firing, Richard applies a clear glaze to his agateware, which makes them more functional rather than merely decorative. The glaze allows the pot to hold water, so it could be used as a vase for flowers, although in my kitchen, it will hold wooden spoons and other utensils.