Trapezoidal Open Disk

Otto Natzler began his career in pottery with his wife and collaborator, Gertrud Natzler. The pair created textured, classical forms, which Gertrud threw on the wheel and Otto glazed. After Gertrud's death in 1971, Otto felt he could not create thrown pieces on his own, so he turned to hand-building, making unusually shaped sculptures like Trapezoidal Open Disk, instead. Natzler used a technique known as reduction firing, combining several organic materials and chemicals that limit the creation of oxygen when they burn. This resulted in a variety of colors and surface textures, like the fissures (hairline cracks) on the surface of this piece. In addition, Trapezoidal Open Disk was glazed multiple times. Sang glaze, commonly referred to as sang de boeuf or oxblood for its deep red hue, peeks through the olive color in several places, most noticeably along the base.