I have a feeling this one's going to go right over most people's heads.

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Agreed. I've seen footage of the San Ildefonso potters sanding the daylights out of their bonedry ware prior to burnishing to get rid of the divots. Burying pots in leaf litter is fascinating.

I know some traditional burnishing processes involved rubbing chicken fat into bone dry clay prior to burnishing with a polished rock. It seems fat could also be a moisture barrier on joins and thinner walls that would burn out in the firing?

I wonder if they used fresh leaves or other materials locally (like, say, on the rims that dried faster), similarly to how we now might use a small swatch of thin plastic film, or paint wax resist at the base of a spout to give the differing moisture contents between parts a chance to even out.

This would not have hit my radar without your review. Thank you.

You go, James Green.

Potter here. Another cause of the black clay in fuel firings is that any iron present in the clay has the potential to be changed to black iron oxide (from the more familiar red iron oxide) when conditions are right. The fire will strip an Ox. atom from each Fe2O3 molecule, turning it to FeO.

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Beautiful job on the proportions! I'm curious - is there an air escape hole? And what are your thoughts on glazing? At first I thought it was salt-glazed, but that bittersweet orange color makes me think lead glaze.

This particular black-footed cat would bip you so hard if you just came three inches closer.

Some people live heavy-handed lives...

It's also stunning how the seemingly free-form octopus is laid out to emphasize the generous swelling of the form.

Thank you for this, Prof. Melechen.

There was also absolutely a memento mori/'I am what you are going to be, and I was what you now are' flavor adding a shiver to it.