Wedding Jars revisited

 Last year, I posted a wedding jar that I was preparing for a new friend, and his wife. They had been married the year before, and I had not been around for their wedding, so late wedding gift. However, in the firing the first jar turned out way too dark for my tastes, so I have remade it using a lighter clay body, and hope to have a lighter pot all around with a more fitting glaze selection. Here is the jar, with some lid detail.

Lid of Wedding Jar with names & date

Top view of knot showing textures

Side view showing join to lid

 This particular jar has a difficult handle decoration in the form of a square knot using two different colored clays. The technique used was rolled coils using ripple boards. The brown clay uses a pineapple texture, and the white a rope texture. Tying the actual knot required damp well aged clay, thin coils, and  patience. The knot is actually tied, not really modeled.

One of the problems with making a gift for someone else to commemorate a life event is that you are never satisfied. The above jar should have been completed long ago, and the onus for the problem is all mine. I believe that the couple would have been happy with the first jar, but I really was not. It would have bothered me for many years afterward. This jar is lighter, better made, and hopefully will be the colors that I envision when completed.

This Wedding Jar is for my daughter, and even though the actual construction was easier and less time consuming, the thought involved in it was just the same. I couldn't be prouder of her, and this is one way of showing how I feel about her.
Her wedding is in August, so this had better get dried soon to bisque fire. I believe it will be finished next week.
I believe this fits their tastes well, and hope they will have many years together to enjoy it. This is the second version of the same piece, but the first version I was not happy with in the greenware stage so I remade it.
The foot on this piece is thrown on after the pot was at the leather hard stage. A large thrown ring was centered on the base of the pot as it was held in a Griffin Grip. The ring was pulled into a foot, and when leather hard a 2 inch diameter pipe was used to cut the opening. Then a hole cutter was used for the other hole in the foot ring. Incising was used to add the linear pattern.
White slip was used for the decoration on the side, and the name/date area on the shoulder ring.
The handle on this piece is made of two intertwining pulled clay rings that come from opposite sides of the lid. Again symbolic of the joining of two individuals.