Experimenting with mishima technique

Mishima is a technique of inlaying slip, 

under glaze, or even clay into a contrasting clay body, 

the main clay body of the pottery piece.   

Creating a mishima piece is pretty simple. 

I started by creating the vase shape then carving out the design. 

I chose to fill in the carved lines with a sepia tone,

then sanded off the excess material then sponged it clean.

Just for fun I punched the holes with a straw 

so that I could add a ribbon to the top of the vase.

After drying the piece I added glaze. 

and put it in to be fired.

I was surprised when it came out of firing and the colors 

seemed to have been lost, it was so muted.

Ha! That is why I call it an experiment!

I'm liking this quote,

“Life is an adventure of passion, risk, danger, laughter, beauty, love; a burning curiosity to go with the action to see what it is all about, to go search for a pattern of meaning, to burn one's bridges because you're never going to go back anyway, and to live to the end.” 

― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals