I painted this vase this May (2006) at the Oregon Porcelain Artist Retreat (OPAR) during an evening workshop with Michael Sullivan.  The vase requires only two luster fires, plus a gold fire if you want to add a gold band at the neck of the vase.

It is a silhouette of trees done in luster.  The sky turned out darker than I had intended so the tree design doesn't show up as well.  Also, it is hard to photograph luster because of its mirror-like surface.

I drew the trees design on the vase and then I masked out the background by applying a resist.  After the resist was applied, I painted the tree shapes in a dark color of luster.  I used Pale Cranberry and I applied it quite heavily.  Quickly, while the luster was still wet, I pounced it with a silk wrapped around a sponge with plastic grocery paper between the silk and the sponge to keep the luster from soaking into the sponge.  I had to work fast with the pouncing as the luster dries fast.  After the luster dried, I removed the resist and fired the vase.  I fired it to Cone 017.

Next fire, I painted a lighter color of luster over the whole vase (I used Sky Blue), again pouncing the luster with the silk-plastic-sponge ball.  After the luster was dry, I fired it again to Cone 017.

The next fire, I added a rim of gold around the neck of the vase and fired to Cone 017.