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Francesca Mackay

@ivarmackayporcelain

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Michael Casson ignited Ivar Mackay's enthusiasm for ceramics.The Song potters and Impressionist painters fueled his experimentation with glaze colour.

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Large robust vase. 'Partridge breast'. Fluxed partridge spotted tenmoku glaze. Hand-thrown porcelain by Ivar Mackay 2004. This glaze effect confounded potters who visited our gallery and wanted to know how Ivar had achieved the spots. At the time Ivar didn't want to give away his 'secret' cheaply because the effect had been the result of a long process of experimentation. The assumption they had made was that the spots were applied on top of the tenmoku. Had that been the case they would have fluxed off during the firing. The spots were applied first, and the tenmoku sprayed over them. As tenmoku fluxes at a lower temperature than the glaze Ivar used for the spots, the spots were able to break through, and then flux smoothly over the top of the tenmoku as the kiln temperature rose, resulting in a partridge feathered effect.

#britishstudioceramics #studiopottery #handthrownporcelain #tenmokuglaze #contemporaryceramics by @ivarmackayporcelain

Medium 'cut-throated' baluster vase. Fluxed Sang-de-Boeuf copper red on pale celadon. 24 x 12 cm. Hand-thrown porcelain by Ivar Mackay 2001. An earlier post of another piece from his series of 'cut-throated' pots, uploaded in November 2024, carries the description of its emotive history, and Ivar's tendency, on occasion, to subconsciously insert into his decoration what was affecting him at the time... as with this one.

#britishstudioceramics #studiopottery #handthrownporcelain #copperred #celadon by @ivarmackayporcelain

Large low mirror bowl. Rich cobalt blue. Fluxed copper and iron at rim, tinged with gold lustre. 5 x 33.5 cm. Hand-thrown porcelain by Ivar Mackay, exhibited in his solo show 'In view of the Pyrenees' at the Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh in 2010. The idea to flux copper and iron at the rim and tinge it with gold lustre was to suggest reflections in water. In some pieces from this cobalt series Ivar let the fluxing oxides pool a little, thus creating the appearance of trees reflected in water.

#britishstudioceramics #studiopottery #handthrownporcelain #cobaltblue #contemporaryceramics by @ivarmackayporcelain

Tall long-necked teardrop vase, pale green crackle celadon. Hand-thrown porcelain by Ivar Mackay 2001. An early piece. Dimensions lost in the ether.

#britishstudioceramics #studiopottery #handthrownporcelain #celadon #crackleglaze by @ivarmackayporcelain

Some years ago we were having dinner at a friend's house and Ivar was seated opposite a tall rectangular Chinese silk painting of a mountain and trees. Not long after he began to decorate some tall pieces with a tenmoku glaze splashed with iron - a series we named 'Mountain Trees Night'. Ivar created this glaze effect by dipping his hand in the iron over-glaze mix and flicking his coated fingers horizontally across the pot in levels, thus suggesting the foreshortened landscape of the silk painting he saw. This became a favourite decorative effect with several of our clients. Large pinch-necked bottle, 'Mountain Trees Night'. Iron-splashed tenmoku. 33 x 13.5 cm. Hand-thrown porcelain by Ivar Mackay 2005. (A re-post from October 2023, with additional information)

#britishstudioceramics #studiopottery #handthrownporcelain #tenmoku #contemporaryceramics by @ivarmackayporcelain

Another example from a group of beautiful glaze effects that stemmed from Ivar's observation of sunlight filtering through flowers, foliage and onto stone in our then French garden. Medium low flare-footed bowl. 'Lichen.' Mossy textured iron glaze. Hand-thrown porcelain by Ivar Mackay 2011.

#britishstudioceramics #studiopottery #handthrownporcelain # ironglaze #contemporaryceramics by @ivarmackayporcelain

Tall conical bun-footed bowl. 'Turned Earth'. Bronzed russet iron exterior, wiped rim, tenmoku interior. Hand-thrown porcelain by Ivar Mackay 2007 & Large micro-lidded 'Big Apple' jar. Bronzed russet iron glaze. 28.5 X 22 cm. Hand-thrown porcelain by Ivar Mackay.
(Reposts from September 2023).

#britishstudioceramics #studiopottery #handthrownporcelain #tenmoku #contemporaryceramics by @ivarmackayporcelain

In my previous post a comment by a friend sparked a response from me which I would now like to elaborate on. I had remarked that there is no new thrown ceramic shape. At some point in time someone has made something identical or very similar. Of course, thrown shapes can be modified, but the salient point is that what distinguishes your work from someone else's is that your hand made that piece, that your touch imbued it with your personality. Small nuances of form and your own glaze recipe finally define that piece as yours! I am reposting an image from September 2023, along with the rather amusing story that accompanied it, because it perfectly illustrates this point.

Many years ago, the Curator of the Wedgwood Museum, Gaye Blake-Roberts, visited our gallery. She saw two of Ivar's pieces and smiled, saying that on a visit to Japan she had seen a similar piece in a museum, made by a Japanese potter over 200 years earlier, entitled 'Looking at Mountains Through a Full Moon.' The cylindrical pot she saw in Japan had an undulate rim and a circular hole cut through the wall to reveal a pale interior. Ivar's two pieces - one tenmoku, the other copper red with a pale celadon interior - had a far more prosaic origin. Ivar had been examining the engine of our car, and the shape of a piston head stuck in his mind. When I told Ms Blake-Roberts this she burst out laughing. Two potters, over two centuries apart, had come to the same conclusion via vastly different routes!

Two 'Switchback' cylindrical vases. Hand-thrown porcelain by Ivar Mackay 2003.

#contemporaryceramics #handthrownporcelain #tenmoku #copperred #celadon by @ivarmackayporcelain

Large scalloped rim baluster vase. Turquoise crackle celadon. Hand-thrown porcelain by Ivar Mackay. A very early piece from 2000, when Ivar was concentrating on perfecting the three great Song Dynasty glazes, Celadon, Copper Red and Tenmoku.

#britishstudioceramics #studiopottery #handthrownporcelain #celadon #crackleglaze by @ivarmackayporcelain

I rarely post subject matter unrelated to Ivar's porcelain, but yesterday evening's eclipse was rather exceptional! Unfortunately the sky filled with clouds in the hours before it began, and for a while I thought our view of the eclipse was going to be spoiled, but in a way this created a rather theatrical effect. Then, just in time the clouds cleared enough for us to catch the denouement, before the light came back. The last image is looking north across part of our garden, illuminated by the returning sun.

#solareclipse #solareclipse2026 #ayoravalley #noalmacrovertedero #noalmacrovertederodezarra by @ivarmackayporcelain

In 1999 we moved to Alnwick, Northumberland, completed the conversion of an old joinery shop into Ivar's porcelain studio, gallery space and flat, commissioned his kiln, and started a programme of art exhibitions in our gallery. By 2000 Ivar was experimenting with his own variants of copper red, and it was at that time that he was kindly offered a recipe by an American potter, Kent, for a particularly deep copper red with burgundy and purple notes.

Large pedestal-footed bowl - dimensions lost in the ether - photographed at night in one of our gallery windows...perhaps not the best time of day to illustrate this most subtle of glazes! Interior, pale celadon, exterior Kent's red. Hand-thrown porcelain by Ivar Mackay 2000.

Note: Open form, small-footed bowls are difficult to produce in porcelain - they tend to sit down in the kiln. The combination of this rare copper red and lovely form was noted, and the piece snapped up before I could take a good photo of it!

#britishstudioceramics #studiopottery #handthrownporcelain #copperred #kentsred by @ivarmackayporcelain

Bobble-liddled fully-rounded jar. Pale celadon, enhanced crackle glaze. 14 x 15 cm. Hand-thrown porcelain by Ivar Mackay 2003. A re-post from September 2023 when this account was still in its naissance.

#handthrownporcelain #celadon #britishstudioceramics #studiopottery #contemporaryceramics by @ivarmackayporcelain