Below are some pictures of the Giant Mouse Chalice in the final stages of completion.
The Giant Mouse Chalice was inspired by a type of French 14th century ceramics known as St. Porchaire ware. This is an original St. Porchaire piece. This is the image that I looked at while building the Giant Mouse Chalice. I later found out that this piece is only 5 3/8 inches tall.
It took three weeks to glaze and put the pattern on the base. Like all of my patterning, it was done entirely free-hand.
This is my favorite detail on this piece. It looks like it's covered in icing, but that's really unfired glaze.
Here is another detail on the base that most people miss.
Here is a before and after of the glaze firing. Notice the tall piece in the upper left corner that blew up during the firing and just happened to fall the opposite way of my piece. That is exactly why I prefer to fire my work alone. There's nothing worse than investing four or five months into a piece, only to have it destroyed in it's last firing by somebody else's work violently exploding next to yours in the kiln...
This sequence of pictures shows the bottom of the bowl getting its first coat of the base glaze. The mouse in the first pitcure gives an idea of the size.
This sequence of pictures shows the beginning stages of the swirlie pattern. Completing just this bottom portion of the bowl took several really long days.
It took roughly two weeks to finish the outside of the bowl. By the time I was done, I was so sick of doing swirlies that I vowed to never do another swirlie again. Of course, that was before I knew that this was going to turn into a series of work...
The before and after of the bowl's glaze firing.
This picture shows where the glaze 'peeled off' during the firing because I applied it too thick in that area. There was nothing I could do but break off those pieces and dremmel the edges down. So if you ever see this piece in real life, that is the super secret story behind the 'bald spot'. ;)