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Tony Hansen
Tony has been a functional potter since the early 1970s. His circumstances were unique - he worked in the lab/studio of Plainsman Clays and made ware as test pieces for production runs, thousands of runs. From the beginning, Luke Lindoe set the example of making test pieces the same way and the same quality as customers did. He (and John Porter) cultivated a company atmosphere of trust, permitting Tony to pursue whatever pottery goals he wanted, with the company studio and everything in the factory, free to use. In the early years, Tony made and sold many hundreds of larger pieces, especially bowls, vases, planters, beanpots, plates and lampbases (gas-fired at cone 10R). But by the 1990s, his focus had turned to helping customers solve their material and production problems. By the 2000s, he increasingly focused on studying clay and glaze physics. The pottery continued, but almost exclusively mugs, not to sell, but as lab tests. These also proved ideal vessels for developing functional glazes and engobes.
Tony describes his pieces, not as objects of craft or art, but as demonstrations of the techniques, methods and materials used to make them. He developed almost all his glazes, code-numbering and made them freely available on each new publishing medium as it arrived. The Plainsman lab was the testing ground for his glaze chemistry and clay physics software, both in keeping lab records and in helping customers. His desktop Insight software was especially valuable in identifying the mechanisms of many popular recipes and then reengineering them to fix issues in their use, application and fired results. Over the years, this work produced many stable base recipes, fit to Plainsman clay bodies, on which a wide variety of colored, opacified and variegated glazes were built.
Related Information
Tony Hansen monograms on mugs
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In addition to the initials, almost everything made has code numbers written beside or below; these index into a group account at insight-live.com where all details, since the 1980s, are recorded. Sometimes the numbers simply are the name of a production (e.g. top right is M325). Often, the numbers were for tests being done (e.g. the "L4131" top left). Sometimes a code number spreads across two lines (e.g. lower left is actually "P6842"). The monogram on the lower right is pre-2000, it was incised using a Kemper trimming tool.
15 inch reduction fired bowl by Tony Hansen
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Made in 1982. Clay is Plainsman H443 fired at cone 10R. Glaze is G2571A with 0.25% chrome oxide, 1.0% cobalt oxide and 0.25% manganese granular. The decoration was done using a wax resist and throwing techniques learned from John Porter. During the early years, the big gas reduction kiln in the Plainsman studio was fired every month or two and each firing would have contained half a dozen of these, thus hundreds were made.
1970s cone 10 reduction stoneware bowl by Tony Hansen
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Made in the mid-1970s. The body was H41G (now H441G), it had 20 mesh ironstone concretions that produced large iron blotches in reduction firing. Luke Lindoe loved to use these clays to show off the cone 10 reduction firing process that he was promoting in the 1960s and 70s. Tony was inspired by the natural rustic stoneware surfaces Luke created on both sculptural and thrown pieces, especially by how the iron speckle bled up through glazes. He made large numbers of these bowls, they showcased the clay surface on the outside and glazed designs on the inside. They proved a good testing ground for matching the thermal expansion of glaze and body (needed to produce strength and resistance to breakage).
A slab-built reduction fired stoneware platter by Tony Hansen
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Made in the 1970s using Plainsman H443. A celadon glaze was decorated with a tenmoku poured over a design prepared with wax resist. John Porter had been making these when he worked at Ceramic Arts Calgary, and he taught Tony the mould-making, slabbing and glazing technique. Tony made these in considerable numbers in the early years at Plainsman.
Cone 10R reduction-fired vase by Tony Hansen
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15.5 inches tall. Clay is Plainsman H480 (buff body stained with yellow iron oxide). Made around 1990. Uses G2571 rutile blue glaze. Like the large bowls, these vases, made by the hundreds, provided opportunities to show off the rustic surfaces produced by Plainsman reduction-fired clay bodies. These also provided a good venue to improve throwing skills (since the bodies were not highly plastic). And trimming skills were also needed to even out the thicker walls on the lower sections (and create the foot).
Plainsman Fire-Red reduction fired vase
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Fire-Red clay is a 50:50 mix of St. Rose Red and M2 with 10% A1 bentonitic clay. The St. Rose is a red fireclay, not useful on its own in reduction firing (because it is too refractory). The M2 supplies iron staining but also natural feldspar to mature the body enough to make it fire strong. The A1 clay contributes iron pyrite speckle and plasticity (in heavy reduction, with a little more feldspar added, this body can fire metallic). The glaze is G2571A bamboo. This piece exhibits the trimming ring (one third of the way up) which divides the thrown surface (upper) with the trimmed one (lower).
Plainsman M332 vase with a wood ash glaze fired at cone 6.
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The pattern was painted using wax resist, and the glaze was applied by pouring. This recipe was the product of multiple previous versions and experience in learning how to process wood ash to a finer particle size and host it in a recipe that melted to the right degree. This glaze fired to such a good surface that it was suitable for functional ware. These were among Tony's earliest successes in formulating glazes, hundreds of pieces grew from this. M332 is a coarse-particled clay body and most glazes pinhole on it if not slow-cooled. Yet these ash glazes produced defect-free surfaces (albeit with plenty of variegation from the impurities intrinsic to the material). Electric kilns began taking pottery by storm in the 1970s and he often tested them with the largest possible pieces.
H435 large vase fired at cone 10R by Tony Hansen
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During the 1980s, he made these in multiple pieces to achieve heights of 2-3 feet. He was unable to produce more bellied forms because the clays did not have sufficient plasticity (however, some customers were able to do it). This one has a wide band of slip made using St. Rose red clay, it was applied at leather hard. The wheat design was carved in at leather hard. The bare clay patches were achieved by wax resisting the bisqued pieces before pour-glazing the outsides.
H443 wine set fired at cone 10R by Tony Hansen
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Although mostly decorative, customers did use these. The ability to tune the thermal expansion of the glazes (using glaze chemistry) gave him the confidence to produce pieces like this (because it was imperative that the glaze not craze). These high-temperature glazes fired to very durable surfaces (no frit was needed; just the feldspar, dolomite, and calcium carbonate were sufficient to melt them). This was an early success in taking a glaze used by a Plainsman customer and reworking its recipe to eliminate problems (this one was crazing, staining and had poor application properties).
Lamp base by Tony Hansen
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This was typical of many dozens of large lampbases made during the 1980s and sold in a gallery in Brandon, Manitoba. This is a dark-burning iron stoneware clay, H440, fired at cone 10 reduction. The glaze is G2571A with manganese added for color.
Cone 10 Reduction Fired Beanpot by Tony Hansen
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11.5 inches tall. Clay is Plainsman H443. Made around 1985. Uses our original 77E06B celadon glaze recipe. John Porter taught Tony the method of throwing the lip with flange (it was magic to see him do it!). He made dozens of these, mostly for decorative use. Later, he made functional ones (lips and full outsides glazed), these were inspired by those made at Medalta Potteries decades previous.
Cone 10R beanpot glazed with Alberta Slip (100%).
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The need for molds at the emerging Medalta Potteries project was the incentive to produce these beanpot reproductions. This provided early opportunty to introduce digital technologies into the jigger mold-making design process (during the 1990s). These were also an enablerbto showcasing Plainsman Clay's Alberta Slip glaze material (this glaze is 100% of that material).
Handbuilt vase with thrown neck by Tony Hansen
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Made around 1980. The clay is Plainsman H440G. Fired to cone 10R. Glaze is rutile blue (G2571A with added rutile and cobalt). These were inspired by press molding that Luke Lindoe was doing. The technique enabled making much larger and thinner pieces (and pressing designs into the walls).
Large reduction fired planter by Tony Hansen
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Planters of a range of sizes and shapes, perhaps hundreds, were made as part of testing production runs done at Plainsman Clays. This one was found in Stratford, Ontario, in 2015. The owners sought to trace it and others back to the original artist. The clay is Plainsman H443. The glaze is one of the few he did not adjust and improve, it came from David Greene, the Plainsman dealer in Edmonton during the 1970s.
Cone 8 oxidation wood ash glazed planter by Tony Hansen
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H463 with a wood ash glaze. This cone 6 glaze was fired to cone 8 to make these pieces. The higher temperature produced more melt fluidity and variegation in this rutile and cobalt version of a wood ash recipe. A thicker application on the outside caused cracking during drying, that produced crawling that added to the aesthetic.
Cone 6 translucent marbled bowl by Tony Hansen
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A transparent glazed. It is a made from Plainsman Polar Ice in 2014 (a New Zealand kaolin based translucent porcelain) and fired to cone 6 with G2926B clear glaze. 5% Mason 6306 teal blue stain was added to the clay, then this was wedged only a few times. The piece was thrown, then trimmed on the outside at the leather hard stage and sanded on the inside when dry.
Ravenscrag Alberta Slip Celadon mug by Tony Hansen
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The outside glaze on this cone 10R mug (made of Plainsman H550) is G2881B, simply an Alberta Slip:Ravenscrag Slip 50:50 mix (of roasted versions of each of the clays). 5% Ferro Frit 3134 was added to get a little better melting (to produce a high gloss). This produces a good celadon with very good working and application properties. Inside glaze: Pure Ravenscrag Slip (also mixed 50:50 roast and raw).
Alberta Slip floating blue glaze on a black engobe by Tony Hansen
Clay is Plainsman M340. The glaze is GA6-C. C6DHSC firing schedule. A black engobe, based on L3954B, acts to greatly intensify the rutile blue effect, but also producing vivid color without the use of cobalt oxide. Tony spent many years on the development of engobes and practical methods to adjust them to fit during drying and firing, on almost any clay body.
Sculpture Clay in functional ware? Yes!
This is Plainsman Sculpture-clay. At cone 10R it is vitreous, a deep brown low porosity body. The particles of grog create a beautiful surface. The glaze is G2571A bamboo matte. It was fired using the C10RPL schedule. By Tony Hansen.
Ceramic business card of Tony Hansen
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These were one of many designs made using Polymer Plates (made by a local printing company).
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