Friday, December 15, 2017

THICK MELTING SNOW


As I look out our front windows, there is bright white snow as far as the eye can see, covering the farms, hills and valley but if you look carefully, selectively, you can see areas of the thick snow melting. The vista reminded me of a slideshow video I made sometime ago and never posted of a rather unusual Hagi mizusashi covered over in a thick white shirahagi glaze resembling thick melting snow. The mizusashi was made by Miwa Kyusetsu XI  student, Yoshida Shuen (1940-1987) in the early 1980s as a thrown "cone" that was then altered to create an ovoid form to which a very thick, over 1/2" roiro black lacquer custom lid was added. The mizusashi is accentuated by combed banding around the piece with a bold spatula mark on the face and areas of intense, dripping glaze resembling melting snow on the exterior and around the mouth of the interior creating a rather engaging visual presentation. Though I had forgotten to post this video, I certainly had not forgotten the pot and hope the slideshow fills out the conversation I had with this simple and practical Hagi mizusashi.