Salt Soda and Wood - A Success - Part II

Dan Hill is one of the few potters that soda fires to cone 6. He is well known for the wide variety of beautiful functional work, and from time to time he also strays into purely artistic work with great effect.

Corner display with Dan Hill's "Time Capsule"
at the back and his two jugs - one wood and the
other salt (blue one)

Dan Hill's pitcher set - soda fired

In the show I especially liked his large covered jar - that had the lid wired down with steel wire and crimped shut - entitled "Time Capsule". His other large jar was very different - with a high iron glaze that results in small crystals that give the glaze an amazing amount of interest. He had three large, boldly designed jugs - each fired the three ways The blue was salt, the browny one was wood fired.( It just had a few dots of blue slip on bare clay ) and the soda one used his signature combination of white slip with blue and black slip trailing on the soda flashed bare clay. So totally different looks. However this time different clays played a role as well, as Dan fires just to cone 6, but the salt and wood firings were cone 9 and 10 respectively.

Dan's high iron glazed jug - soda fired

Dan Hill's wall plaque - Storm Warning - slip and soda

I loved his wall plaques which really stood out - both visually and artistically as he frames them on the back with a strip of clay that goes all the way around, but angle sharply inward so it really pops the flat surface off the wall. Also his surfaces remain absolutely flat - no sagging or warping during construction or firing..
Another very outstandng  piece which unfortunately was not given justice as it was displayed in the small cabinet and not on a plinth was a triptych. It had holes in the top holding long rods of clay that had flashed wonderfully in the soda. I thought he was influenced by the view from his studio which is at the top of a slope and overlooks a swampy area with bullrushes. You can see more of Dan's work as he is also on the Madawaska Valley Studio Tour on Sept 28 and 29.

Dan's triptych - wonderful flashing around the tops of the
clay rods.

Dan's squared canister set - soda.