Wednesday, March 30, 2011
THIS IS MY BUSY DAY
Monday, March 28, 2011
QUICK WATSON!
Friday, March 25, 2011
ROLLING HILLS
When I first started seriously studying Japanese art, I was instantly taken by the presence and baring of the Raku wares of Hon’ami Koetsu (1558-1637) and Raku Chojiro (?-1592). Over time I made every attempt to see and study the mainline Raku pieces which included several trips to see Raku Kichizaemon XV and the Raku Museum. What really fascinated me about these early masterpieces was the posture of the bowls and the undulating termination of the lip. As a burgeoning potter, I made various attempts to create a roving lip, reminiscent of roving hills through various means of removing clay, or throwing an irregular lip. The sheer simplicity of appearance is easily shattered as you try this for yourself.
Several years later, I found the answer to my lip conundrum in the oddest of places, a print gallery. At a show of prints (circa 1994), I was captivated by the vibrant, lush green mezzotints of rolling hills and meadows by Honda Kazuhisa (b. 1948). The way in which he layered his rolling hills gave me the idea to alter the lips on my teabowls. It seemed an odd place to find an answer to a pottery question, but by studying a variety of his prints, I could see the soft rolling hills transplanted to the lip of my bowl.
In time, the bowl shape itself has evolved to a simple and broad form, resembling a brandy snifter, prior to altering it. The lip is cut and smoothed with the body of the bowl being pushed slightly oval to present a broader face to the user, creating a good surface to drink from. This allows the bowl to be used from the intended front or the back. In the end, the bowl reminds me of a freshly harvested melon, cut open and enjoyed in the field. The soft curves of the bowl are a visual mobius loop, bringing the viewer’s eye round the bowl until it plunges into the form.
The first illustrated teabowl came out of my 2/24/11 firing and is glazed in my temmoku and partridge feather glaze and was applied to match and accentuate the curves of the lip. The above teabowl was made sometime last fall and is glazed in my haiyu glaze over a kushime decoration.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
UTILITY?
“Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.”
Oscar Wilde
Monday, March 21, 2011
IT’S ALL IN THE ATTITUDE II
Illustrated is gestural medieval meets modern Shigaraki chawan by Oda Minoru. It contrasts greatly against the mizusashi by him (from another blog entry) that is primarily hi-iro coloring. This chawan has a wonderfully measured stance and attitude and is coated in ash on the face and back wall of the piece. The firing has darkened the pot to a rich chocolaty brown with a wet (uroi) sheen about the form.
It is the casual attitude of this pot that really interests me. It appears to have just happened and rests very loosely on the foot like a pedestal. The attitude of the chawan just begs to be handled without any ritual or formality, the sense of touch completing its purpose. Good Shigaraki and Iga wares just defy time and many seem that they could have been made centuries ago or speaking out at this present moment.
Friday, March 18, 2011
IPTV; THROWING A HIGH WALLED TEABOWL
Thursday, March 17, 2011
NOT POTTERY RELATED HUMOR
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
A WEE BIT-O-GREEN
Illustrated to honor the traditional green of St. Patrick’s Day is an Oribe chawan by one of the best potters to embrace the Momoyama revival, Suzuki Goro. This large wonky chawan has broad areas of Oribe green glaze splashed over the surface and embodies the meeting of the old and the new. Suzuki Goro is a master of various styles of Oribe as well as Ki-Seto, Seto-Guro and Shino. His ability to present such a happenstance style chawan belies the great skill it takes to manipulate a piece in such a naturalistic manner. For pottery lovers, maybe it really is a “pot” (like this chawan) at the end of the rainbow………..
(A large number and variety of Suzuki Goro’s works can be seen on David Callens’ website;
Monday, March 14, 2011
A STARTING POINT
Please bear in mind, from my perspective these formulas are starting points and after initial testing, you can make judgments as to how to proceed. I also tested most of these glazes between Cone 7 and Cone 10 and also fired them in both neutral and reduction atmosphere. Lastly, once you find a rice straw source to make your ash, it is possible to experiment and come up with a very serviceable nuka-yu glaze.
Wood ash 30 to 50 parts
Feldspar 70 parts
AME-YU
Wood ash 60
Rice straw ash 10
Feldspar 30
BIDORO-YU
Wood ash 40
Feldspar 60
Zinc 5
ORIBE-YU
Wood ash 50
Feldspar 50
Copper ox. 4
KI-SETO-YU
Wood ash 50
Rice straw ash 10
Feldspar 40
Red Iron Ox. 1 to 2%
Illustrated is the interior of a teabowl with an altered bidoro-yu over a Shino glaze. This particular version always produces nice green glass pools on the interior and runny drips (tombo-me) on the exterior.
Friday, March 11, 2011
EARTHQUAKE IN JAPAN
All of our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and those affected.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
MOMOYAMA REVIVALIST
“Shino wares were first created in the Momoyama era, a time of great creative impetus which suddenly vanished. Shino wares created amid the natural beauty of Mino, earned a reputation as the king of ceramics and I would like to bring that tradition back to life. But mine is the modern age, and I would like that fact to come out in my design and plastic art. Above all, I want to mix modern styles with the traditional Japanese sense of beauty as it is presented in the Nezumi-Shino.”* Wakao Toshisada
Illustrated is a Nezumi-Shino chawan by Wakao Toshisada (b. 1933) which clearly shows the revival of the Momoyama aesthetic. Though well known for his creative use of Shino glazes and Rimpa influenced designs, his work as a modern traditional Mino potter is exceptional. His minimalist designs are used to make maximum use of space echoing back to the monochrome ink painters of the Momoyama era. As he very carefully points out and makes use of his own insights, his work is solidly based on an earlier archetype, but his pottery shows the characteristics of a modern day potter.
(*Quoted from MINO; 30 Anniversary DMCAA)
Monday, March 7, 2011
RELUCTANT
A long while back, I hurt my left hand, specifically my index and middle fingers. I damaged the nerves and ligaments and on top of that, I got a rather bad infection. The doctor was very clear, no throwing for quite a while and depending on the extent of the injury, I may not throw again. This news was certainly not well received and after less than a week without throwing, I started getting very irritable and antsy to work with clay. I started doodling up some ideas for potential hand built pieces and was at it the very next day.
Luckily I had a slab roller for the hump molded plates and trays I make. This made the whole process a bit easier. Working with a purpose and careful not to use my left hand, I set about building teapot after teapot for decorating in various surfaces. By the third week or so, my hand building skills improving, I started making these large house boxes (hauskasten). During this period, I made almost 200 hand built pieces in three temperature ranges and a half dozen surfaces. Though I was dragged into hand building by absolute necessity, a very reluctant partner in the process, I have continued to hand build to this day. I guess it is true; every cloud does have a silver lining.
(Illustrated is a “RunningMan” teapot which measures about 16” x 16” x 2” and a “LandscapeMan” lidded house box which measures about 20” tall. Both are inlaid engobe into my ishime-ji surface. The teapot, which is fully functional, was included in two national juried exhibits of teapots and illustrated in the book; HANDBUILT CERAMICS by Kathy Triplet. The housebox was also in an exhibit; The Tea Party at GBF Gallery in Cleveland, Ohio.)
Friday, March 4, 2011
KAKUREZAKI RYUICHI
By looking at this chawan, it would seem that Kakurezaki has an intuitive geometrical formula running through his being. Many of his forms, this chawan included, shows a wonderful sense of proportion and planes and angles that work so well with how he fires his kiln. His works play with visual geometry and challenge the concepts of classical and traditional form. When you combine his constructed vocabulary with his unique approach to firing, it is easy to see why his works can easily be picked out of a crowd.
The illustrated chawan is an excellent example of his intense and successful firing technique together with his broad planes that are accentuated by the running ash. The kodai is cleverly cut to address the issue of geometry and in this case, mimics the form of the bowl. No matter how you look at it, this is a cutting edge and dynamic chawan.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
BEFORE & AFTER
As for the way I throw, I am a natural left hander, despite 12 years of parochial school dis-education. Despite being a left hander, which I use for writing and eating, nearly everything else is done with my right hand from using a hammer to throwing a football. I have Sister Paulette to thank for this quirk. Long before I started to make pots, any potter I had seen was right handed, so when I started throwing, everyone around was also right handed, so the technique I picked up was a mixture of predominantly right handed throwing with some left handed tendencies thrown in. This may explain why I throw the way I do.
The teabowl thrown in the video is also illustrated in its finished state. The bowl was stamped while still wet and then later glazed in my temmoku and tetsu partridge feather glaze.