Pottery Coil Bowl Inspired by Water and Ancient Rock

Over the spring, as I puttered away at my pottery, I dreamt of a bowl. A big bowl that could hold a big salad for a dinner party of four. Or, curly pasta noodles slathered in butter and salt for cozy nights in with my partner. A big bowl worthy of holding the centre of a table.

At the same time, I was reading The Anthropology of Turquoise by Ellen Meloy. This is a beautifully written book of essays about humans and their evolving relationship to nature over history. It was funny, knowledgeable, and poetic. It took me almost a year to read – I would read an essay and have to sit with it, sometimes for a month or more, before I was ready to read another.

Her descriptions of turquoise water and the rocks along the river of the “Four Corners” in the Southwest US. I aimed to capture that colour and vibe in the glaze of this bowl. She spoke of the pottery of the Mohave and I found that they had distinct coil pots. I searched my photos of inspiring pottery and found that I had the privilege to see Anasazi pottery when I visited New York City back in 2019.

After I visited the Met, I had questions about the repatriation of such precious Indigenous artifacts (including a mind-blowing collection of Haida Gwaii art) but that is another blog post entirely.

Building the Coil Bowl

My design was born – a coil pottery bowl, with a turquoise belly and an organic, matte outside for holding.

Roiling the coils to create this bowl took hours. I used another bowl shape as a form and wrapped it newspaper to form my coils around it. I was nervous that the coils were going to look sloppy as rolling consistently and arranging nicely row by row is very challenging.

I used my pottery rib to smoosh the inside of the bowl for a smooth surface and waffled if I should smoosh for the outside as well. In the end, I decided to keep the outside coil texture as it reminded me of a woven basket and I felt like it would provide nice grip for holding the bowl when it is full of delicious food.

Glazing the Pottery

For the glaze, I wanted to pair rough, matte earthy look with the inside of the bowl being a “pool of turquoise”. For the outside, I used Mayco Winter Wood and the inside I did a base layer of Winter Wood and topped with Mayco Norse Blue.

So far, it’s been a been a good salad bowl and the outside is indeed good for gripping 😀