Handmade Ceramic Jar with Purple and Rutile Glaze
Handmade Ceramic Jar with Purple and Rutile Glaze
This handmade lidded jar combines natural warmth with striking artistry, featuring a soft rutile glaze paired with a bold band of cobalt purple. Its elegant profile and unique glaze variation make it as functional as it is decorative, perfect for adding handcrafted charm to any space. Whether displayed on a countertop, filled with kitchen essentials, or used for keepsakes, this piece will bring color, texture, and a touch of artisan beauty to your home.
Details
Measuring 7 inches tall with the lid in place and 4.5 inches wide at its widest point, this wheel-thrown jar offers generous yet compact storage. The inner opening measures 3.5 inches across, making it easy to access and fill. The foot of the jar is 3.75 inches wide, giving it a stable base. The jar can hold around 2.5 cups when full, and it's microwave and dishwasher safe.
The rutile glaze on this piece creates a soft, beige gold tone across the lower body, with whisps of lavender blue where the glaze flows thick around the white slip texture. The jar is accented by a vivid cobalt blue band that wraps the midsection, offering a brilliant pop of color against the earthy clay. Each piece is unique due to the hand glazing and firing process, ensuring no two jars are exactly alike.
Use
This versatile jar is perfect for storing coffee, tea, sugar, herbs, or other pantry staples. It also works beautifully for holding bath salts, cotton balls, or other bathroom essentials. Outside of practical use, it makes a distinctive decorative accent for shelves, tables, or counters.
Process
This jar was created on my potter's wheel using Laguna Rods Bod clay. A white slip (watered down clay, blended smooth) was painted around the body and lid of the jar in a thick layer. A jagged brush was swiped through the wet slip to create the textured.
This piece was glazed with emily purple glaze on the inside, and in a band around the top of the body of the jar, and the bottom of the lid. The outside of the jar was glazed in rutile, which flows and pools around the slip, and allows the color of the stoneware clay and white slip to show through. The jar was fired to cone 10 in a reduction atmosphere.