As a teen I had an unnatural fetish for all things bright yellow, right down to my size 13 Puma sneakers. So in my early 20’s, it came as quite a surprise as I became enthralled with the myriad of greens of medieval and modern Shigaraki and Iga. As I looked about, other enticing greens appeared; Oribe, Persian blue-greens, Fujina-yaki, medieval lead glazed pots and seiji/seihakuji glazes. I had to capitulate, I love green. I might as well face it, I’m addicted to green (thank you Robert Palmer).
In my late 20’s, I started making pottery and my mind ran to those greens I see when I close my eyes. Though I was neither faithful nor monogamous to those greens, but they played a large part in my developing glaze palette. Celadons, Oribe, Rob’s Green, Hamada Oribe, Seacrest glazes and many more. As I moved away from wood firing and into the “conventional” realm, I began to work on a variety of green glazes. Copper blues-greens, Oribe glazes, medieval green and than came the discovery of the extinct lepidolite. The green from lepidolite is like no other in this country. It’s surface, flow and iridescence is marvelous and the depth of it’s translucent nature is visually engaging and neither easily duplicated or forgotten.
A large part of my high-fire work now is dominated by greens together with clear and temmoku. It was a natural progression and the variety of uses is infinite. The translucent quality allows for slip and underglaze work along with my “rozome” style wax resist (ronuki) both under and over the glaze. I am constantly looking for new greens and uses for the ones I have. I am sure there is much more to do.
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