Katharine Ball made a series of stoneware bottles in various shapes and textures over the spring and summer. The bottles were slab-built using Mather stoneware, consisting of two pieces for the body and a base, and glaze fired to cone 10 with some reduction and underglazes. Ball displayed the bottles on her dining room table but her cat began knocking them over, so she moved them to her office bookshelf at the Leddy Library for safekeeping due to lack of space at home. She took portraits of each bottle in her garden but some photos were fuzzy, so not all bottles are shown from every angle. One bottle developed a hairline crack so she remade it, though the second version

1. Stoneware Bottles
Spring/Summer 2017
by
Katharine Ball

2. This past Spring and Summer, I decided to
make a series of “2-dimensional” bottles.
These bottles are all slab-built using Mather
stoneware. They consist of 2 pieces for the
body and a base. They were glaze fired in a
gas kiln to cone 10, with some reduction. In
many cases, I also used underglazes. I wanted
to explore different shapes and textures.

3. This is one of the bottles
at leather-hard stage.
The bottles were
all fired at the
Pewabic Pottery
in Detroit.
Cone 10 Reduction Glazes

4. To begin with, I kept the bottles on
my dining room table. However, my
cat Charlie took a liking to them
and began knocking them over. A
few ended up on the floor.
In order to preserve them, and because I
have absolutely no space at home, I took
them to work. They are now sitting on a
book shelf in my office at the Leddy Library.

5. I took “portraits” of each bottle in my
garden. Unfortunately, some of the photos
were a little fuzzy. This is why quite a lot of
the bottles are only shown on one side!

14. I discovered a hairline crack in this bottle and so I remade it!

15. However, the glazes on the second version, are not so nice!

21. With a few crepe paper flowers!