Aztek-Indianish

Here is an attempt to replicate some of the techniques used by some Native American ceramic artists. The pottery that inspired my creation looked as if it was of a terracotta type of clay with black shapes which appeared to be etched white. What I think they did was to start with a white pot and slip color it to look terracotta. Then over that I think they slip colored black shapes and finally scratched the black shapes down to the white base color. At my present skill level I could not even make a pot of sufficient size or shape to replicate the one I admired. Nor am I sure of the exact technique utilized for the decoration. However I am pleased with the results.

Whoops. I got scolded because I used the wrong clay in the wrong kiln. I guess you can't just BYO. Who Knew?! I turns out that if you use the wrong stuff in the wrong kiln set up you could possibly melt your stuff all over their nice kiln. Well this piece is only bisque fired to about 1600 degrees or so. I do not intend to glaze it where the temp reaches about 2600 degrees. This is where you run into problems.

UPDATE
I wanted to try polishing a piece with wax. I was told that they burnish pottery to get that effect. I thought I had an idea of what burnish means (rub the heck out of it). So I found some old red colored floor wax and stared rubbing. Real hard. I like how it came out. The pictures don't do any of the pieces proper justice. They need to be seen and touched.

You can see the before and after burnishing pictures now with and without the flash too. By the way I looked up the definition to the word burnish and it means to polish by friction so I wasn't too far off.