These are one-of-a-kind pieces created in a ceramics studio, by people playing with clay. Yes, playing. This set includes a large 12 7/8"w x 12 7/8"d x 1.25" h platter with a raised center ring, and a 10"w x 10"d x 2"h bowl, both made with a taupe stoneware with a heathered color. The top portions of both pieces are decorated with a matte slate blue slip with a relief maple leaf design. The way that is done is quite fun. An unfired piece such as a bowl made a few hours prior and allowed to become leathery hard would have the leaf, flower or real-life piece of nature moistened then put gently onto the clay. Pressing it further in would make an actual impression, but this particular design was achieved by using the maple leaves as a masking agent against the slip. The blue color is slip, a thinly mixed mixture of clay,extra water to make it thinner, and minerals to give it color. This makes a rough gravy thick liquid that can be painted, poured, or splattered onto ceramics but unlike glaze, has no glass in it. This then allows for a more matte finish than a normal glaze process. The piece was likely then dipped in a matte glaze that would seal the porous stoneware, making it waterproof. By using slip instead of normal glaze, the artist would have been able to cut it from firing, then glazing, then firing it again to one firing, and creates a more artistic, matte result.
The piece is signed by Bauman.