Mishima on Ceramics

Mishima ceramics comes from the Japanese Island of Mishima, but it was originally transported from Korea around the 16th century. This surface design technique is a way of drawing by inlaying a slip of contrasting color into lines incised in leather-hard clay.

To create very fine lines, I use a mechanical pencil with a sharp needle inside to draw on leather-hard pots. Before I fill the lines in with black underglaze, I wax out the area next to the lines that I will place the underglaze to avoid smearing the underglaze. I fill in the etched lines with black underglaze, allow it to become leather hard and then wipe it off with a sponge.  The photo at the right shows the lines before the slip is scraped off.  Once the pot is bisque fired, if I have created an image like the piece below, I filled in the image with coloured underglazes and then put a clear glaze over top and fired it in a glaze firing. 

 

I made this piece a few years ago and it was one of my first attempts at this technique. More recently, I have felt inclined to revisit this process and have a project planned for the upcoming year. Stay tuned for new work coming soon.