NEBULOUS

Like most people through the mid-west and east coast, it has been dreary, rainy and very windy here with lots of localized flooding as well. This makes it a bit difficult to have a positive outlook and upbeat mood. When I am feeling that way, I turn to my drug of choice, pottery. Looking at the right pots can’t easily change my mood and perspective.

Illustrated is an ethereal Shino chawan by Toki Juyo Mukei Bunkazai, Sakai Kobu (1937- ). His Shino works are different than most and very easy to pick out of a crowd. This softly altered bowl has wonderful shades of iron, nezumi blue and hints of white somewhat reminiscent of an old science fiction paperback cover; a nebula springs to mind and certainly transports me to a different place. Where would we be with out such ceramic gems?

“The Cosmos is also within us. We are made of star stuff. We are a way for the Cosmos to know itself.”
Carl Sagan (1934-1996)

(From a private collection)

GIRI

Illustrated is a richly ash glazed covered jar by William Henry Klock. This stamped east meets west jar was made shortly after Bill worked in South Korea and visited and studied the Onggi potters. As I have mentioned before, Bill was a Leach student and this pot surely shows the cross cultural combination of English, American and Asian influences.

On a trip to upstate NY to work with Bill back in the mid-90’s, I bought a group of his pots to bring back to Cleveland as gifts for two very kind patrons who helped me start my studio up. Though I would have loved to keep this jar, I gave each a choice of what pot they would like and one picked this jar and the other pot to go was a wonderful teapot in the same style. Oh well, there is no doubt that I miss this pot, but at the same time, the patronage I received in Cleveland was instrumental to my becoming a full time potter. There was no way I could not give the best pots for such support. The pot lives on somewhere out in the real world and in my senses that recall this wonderful pot.

THE RESULTS ARE IN

I fired off the glaze kiln last Thursday and finally got it cool enough to unload by late Friday. Overall the firing was pretty good, though it was pretty hot at the top of the kiln and some pieces ran a little, at least not off the pot, except one larger covered jar. As my wife remarks, I need more glaze diversity in the kiln as this one was mostly temmoku and partridge feather iron with a few medieval green and haiyu pieces mixed in. I get in the groove of working with a new glaze combo and tend to forsake other possibilities.

The larger pieces and all of the serving bowls came out rather well, excepting the one runner. There was another very seriously close call on a larger covered jar as the glaze ran all the way to the foot and just crested the angle where the foot touches the shelf, but there it stayed.


Illustrated is wespeglas covered jar about 14” with long cascading trails of the partridge feather glaze over my temmoku. The close-up illustration is a group of three “lip-bowls” in the same glaze combination with pulled lips and stamped decoration around the bowls.

IPTV; TAKAUCHI SHUGO VIDEO SHORT

Here is a short video preview of a longer special on Mashiko veteran potter; Takauchi Shugo (b. 1937). This short and the full length special were done by the NHK television network in Japan and was part of a series on prominent potters. Much of Takauchi’s work is Oribe in nature, though he does a myriad of “Mino” styles including Shino and haiyu glazed wares.

Illustrated is a close-up of a very fine Oribe pot by Takauchi Shugo. His use of Oribe and iron as well as sqraffito is part of what makes him a modern Mashiko master.
(Illustration used with the permission of a private collector.)

PART & PARCEL

I think I should have saved that “This Is My Busy Day “ post for the past two days. The week started by firing a bisque and topping off my glazes on Monday, as well as packing up a pot to ship. On Tuesday I unloaded the kiln, cleaned and prepped all the biqued pots, clear glazed the insides of the foot rings, waxed them all off and set about glazing. This firing is a group of donburi bowls, altered lip bowls, wall bowls, teabowls (of course), a group of cap jars, two large inset lid jars and some basket forms. Today, I finished glazing all the pots, cleaned them all off and loaded the kiln. In the midst of this, I also packed up two more recent orders that will go to the post soon.

Despite the task at hand and the loud music in the background, it is hard to focus on glazing and kiln loading. As I work, my mind drifts to the number of Japanese potters, especially in and around Mashiko, that have lost not only their gas and wood kilns, but their homes as well. Though I know how resilient potters are and can be, I can not help but think about the loss and all of the energy (and expense) that will have to go into rebuilding their kilns, studios and places for family and students. I am humbled by their ability to cope and write about their ordeals in what seems like a stubborn cavalier outlook. I suspect they are just counting down to when they well be potting again in the very near future.

I am just always struck that despite the fact I have done this numerous times before, each glazing is just anything but routine. That is the real surprise. At this point of my potting life, you would think this would just happen exactly like every cycle before, but that never happens. Quite possibly this is a really good thing. Keeps me on my toes and ready to adapt to varying forms, numbers of pots and how they will all fit into the kiln, not to mention where they should fit in the kiln. Like most kilns, the top is maybe 20 degrees hotter than the bottom and this does have its impact on the glazes.

The kiln is now all loaded and ready to go. I will fire it off tomorrow and by early evening it will be in the hands of the “kiln gods”. I can only hope that I have played my part to the best of my ability and let the unseen variables do their best to make for another good firing…………….

“Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.” James Matthew Barrie (1860-1937)

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE MY ETCHINGS?

I first thought about etched porcelain after seeing the works of Arne Ase (Norway) and Astrid Gerhartz (Germany) back in the early 1990’s. I immediately became apparent that the use of this technique could be either literal or abstract and this appealed to me. The question back in the early 90’s was how to proceed. In my first attempts I used shellac as a resist and a highly deluted solution of muriatic acid and water as the etchant. This process had lots of drawbacks from a lengthy waiting time for the varnish to dry to the affects the solution was having on my hands and nostrils. Without any real guidance, I was on my own to solve these problems.
Over time, I settled on simple wax as the resist and a solution of the cheapest vinegar I could find mixed with water (4 parts water to 1 part vinegar). This combo has proven to be the best for my uses together with a stout sponge and the right touch not to break the greenware. Illustrated is a before and after picture of an etched porcelain teabowl. The etched design is of the kanji “JU” which represents long life or longevity. I refer to it as O-Ju, the Big Life, and it is bordered by a net design. The teabowl is glazed in my temmoku and haiyu glazes, which despite softening the visual of the design, the etched surface is very tactile and as a recent client commented, “it allows you to feel the JU”.

JUKO-SHINO

I am fascinated by the fact that an idea can spring up as far a field as ancient Egyptian and Mayan pyramids. Discounting alien engineers, the idependent invention of an idea is simple at its core; it simply seemed like a good idea at the time. Is the same principle possible for potters, born only a year apart and living within 100 or so square miles of each other? I honestly think so and in this case I am talking about Tsukigata Nahiko and another potter who was seemingly on the same pathway, Murata Juko (Tetsuo) (b. 1922).

Like Tsukigata, Murata’s pathway started early on in pottery. He sought out potters he could study with that would help him answer his questions about clay and the Mino tradition in particular. Early on he worked with Kato Kobei V whose heritage connected the old style Shino and Mino tradition with the burgeoning revival of the Momoyama aesthetic. From there he went on the study with 20th century legend, Kato Tokuro. From Tokuro, he would have learned the essentials of technology, firing and the many facets of Mino pottery; Shino, Oribe, Seto-Guro, Ki-Seto, to name a few. After leaving the workshop of Kato Tokuro, he finished his education with the tutelage of Kato Hajime. Whatever questions about aesthetics and technology that may have remained, he would have found answers with Kato Hajime. Hajime, designated Ningen Kokuho, was a master of form and surface. He mastered whatever he set after and was as adept in Persian blue with underglaze gold all the way to Bizen ware. I can not imagine three greater teachers to prepare one for the real world of making pottery for a living.

So, he left the realm of study and set up a pottery and built his kiln. His pathway, like Tsukigata, leads him to explore the nature of Shino and its relationship with iron, among other things. In time, using a liberal blend of iron and Shino glazes, coupled with the natural ash deposits of his wood firing, he arrived at his Juko-Shino. The Juko-Shino wares he made are classified as kiln change Shino (Gama-Yohen Shino) and in many cases; the surfaces are heavily coated with ash, in a tamadare style cascade.

Where Tsukigata and Murata differ is in the nature of their pieces and the depth of the surface. Murata’s works tend to be more on the conservative side and along the lines of proven archetypes. His surfaces also have a bit less depth than Tsukigata, partially, I believe, because Tsukigata took on glazing and firing with every ounce of his being. Murata’s glazing and subsequent firings fall on the more conservative side and possibly end up more intimate and less aggressively masculine in appearance. Throughout his career, Murata exhibited widely and was published in a wide variety of books on tea utensils and/or chawan specifically.

Illustrated is a large Juko-Shino (Gama-Yohen Shino) chawan by Murata Juko. This chawan is a wonderfully rounded piece with a thick, translucent feldspar Shino glaze coving the exterior with vivid areas of iron glaze accenting the surface. The exterior also has areas of a thin layer of natural ash glaze coating the Shino like a thin coat of glass. The interior has a thicker layer of iron with iridescence where the glaze has pooled at the bottom. All in all, it makes for a rich visual surface that coats the well conceived form and steps away from our usual concept of Shino. Potters like Murata Juko, Tsukigata Nahiko, Kumano Kuroemon and others, push our concept of Shino into a whole new realm, this chawan is no exception.

BOTA-MOCHI

As most of you know, wood firing doesn’t allow for many mistakes of line or form. The pot either is or isn’t a wood fired pot. I think back to my first wood firing, anything was fair game for going into the kiln. The results were the beginning of my education with many of the pots looking horrible and should have never been wood fired, rather fired with glaze. Over the years as potter and collector, I have studied what makes a good wood fired pot using the Western and Eastern potters as examples from Kirk Mangus and Jeff Shapiro all the way to Kakurezaki Ryuichi to Kaneshige Toyo, Ningen Kokuho.

Illustrated is a classic, sturdy and simple form that stands the test for wood firing. This simple cylindrical Bizen vase was made by Yoshimoto Tadashi (b. 1944) who studied with legendary potter, Kaneshige Toyo. This vase exhibits a variety of ash effects from goma and sangiri to the vivid bota-mochi areas of bright orange bare to the clay body. This vase has it all and reminds me of one of those computer generated visions of some galactic far away nebula “burned” on to the clay surface. From my perspective, this pot was made to be wood fired…..

I'VE SLIPPED

I really like making slipware pots. The process, though somewhat unforgiving of error, makes for a quick and sometimes spontaneous outcome. Some designs are well planned out; others just seem to happen as the slip trailer touches down. My approach is about fun and fantastical design, little of my work borrows from the slipware archetype, though I have been known to make “copies” of older slip trailed pots. I usually use a clear glaze over my slipware but on occasion, I have used amber, green, purple and Persian blue glazes as well. Each transparent glaze gives the slip ware a very different look. My favorite though, is the black and white.

Illustrated is a pair of 17” wall bowls. They are very shallow bowls with extensive patterning on them. The bowl on the left has been sectored off into areas then trailed with contrasting slip designs, the one on the right has been sectioned off into a grid pattern with various, mostly spontaneous designs. The real joy of slip trailing is that once you put that slip bottle down, the pot is done until it is time to glaze. I really respond to the immediacy of this process, not to mention, it ends up being fun along the way.

IPTV; THROWING A V-BOWL

This is the last of the videos shot a few weeks back while I was throwing stoneware off the hump for the last firing. This video is me throwing a Ming Dynasty influenced V-bowl off the hump. It is jokingly called a Ming-ding( by some former students) because of the shape and if you tap the very edge, there is a resounding “ding” sound. I am reasonably sure that I have thrown more of this shape than any other that I have ever made, in the thousands and ranging from 4” to 28” on the high end. The bowl in the video ends up measuring just over 14” across and weighs in at under 3lbs. Let me know what you think. The next video will be of a slightly better known potter. Stay tuned, same pot time, same pot channel.

SAN-TSUBO

“I want to go beyond virtuosity: I want to strip my work of ‘effects’ until it stand monolithic, based on reality and yet transcending it. It must flow naturally from my materials (from the chisel and the way of the block). This is very difficult but is the only right way. It is the ultimate ideal.”

The above quote is from famed Japanese print artist, Munakata Shiko (1903-1975) from the book; THE WOODBLOCK AND THE ARTIST. Munakata was part of the growth of the Mingei movement and friends with Bernard Leach, Yanagi Soetsu, Shoji Hamada and his very good friend Kawai Kanjiro. From my perspective, Munakata’s statement, though relating to print making, could relate to any artistic or craft endeavor and is very relevant to pottery. He understood what all many potters strive for, to “allow the clay to speak”. As most know this is certainly not easy and takes a lifetime to work towards.

Munakata had a unique relationship to pottery through his close friend, master potter, Kawai Kanjiro. Over the years, Munakata portrayed the pots of Kawai in his prints and paintings, in essence, paying homage to the achievement of his good friend. During his years as primarily a print artist, Munakata excelled at ink painting as well as calligraphy and the occasional decoration of pottery piece made by various potters. His works are always bold and graphic in nature. Whether print, painting, calligraphy or pot, Munakata remained true to his ideal, his works always go far beyond simple virtuosity.

Illustrated is a close-up of a san-tsubo (three jars) kakejiku, scroll painting done by Munakata Shiko. It portrays three pots, influenced by Kawai Kanjiro, the gosu blue , the shinsa (yuriko; underglaze red) and the mentori faceted tsubo balanced against his bold calligraphy (shoga).

DISAPPOINTMENT

As both potter and collector, there are a number of modern potters whose works I admire. There is a core group of potters that I follow and have watched their work, some over a 20 year period. Among my absolute favorites there has always been a constant, a master Japanese potter who works in a variety of styles, mostly glazed.

This past weekend I encounted a chawan by this potter. The form a bit off and the foot, way broad and unsightly, but what really bothered me was the large crack right through the bowl. From the inside (mikomi) there was a 1.5” crack that obviously had glaze packed into the crack while still bisque. When looking at the foot, there was a nearly 2” s-crack that had been decorated over to try to hide the crack, to no avail, it was glaring. In a way, this was a great disappointment for me. A potter, who I have regarded highly, in essence, just didn’t seem to care about the quality of the piece and how it fit into his body of work. I think if this was some anomaly, I could dismiss it, but over the past decade, I have seen a number of his pieces with a variety of cracks, odd repairs and other faults, all with the ever so important signed wood box. There can be no mistaking the fact that this potter made the calculated decision to sell these pieces.

Now, here is my question, though I am not in the position to buy $2500+ pieces, what are the expectations of the potter and of the collector for this market? As Dick Schneider* was always fond of saying, “a potter shouldn’t hurt the buyer”. It was intended as tongue in cheek, but what he really meant was there should be a certain level of workmanship that provided an object devoid of cracks, chips and sharp bits. From my perspective, I will not sell work that is cracked or chipped. I even agonize over selling a pot with a small blemish from where it may have stuck to a shelf, but how does a potter justify selling work with a crack through the pot.

I am really at a loss to understand this. I understand there is not such thing as perfection when dealing with hand made objects, but shouldn’t a base line of perfection be what is strived for? In viewing the irregularities and nuances of distorted Japanese tea utensils, perfection is an odd term, but at the very least, the tea should stay in the $2500 teabowl……………

“No good work whatever can be perfect, and the demand for perfection is always a sign of a misunderstanding of the ends of art.” John Ruskin

(*As previously mentioned, Dick Schneider teaches Ceramics at CSU in Cleveland, Ohio)

KINUTA

“The beauty of modern art and craft is based on simplicity, clarity and refinement. These are my guiding principles in my everyday creations. “ *

This quote is by Ando Moriyuki (b. 1944) a veteran of the Mino ceramic scene whose works tend to revolve around Oribe ash glazed kairagi (crawling) pottery. Though this is one of his specialties, he also is well versed in traditional Shino, Oribe, Ki-Seto and ash glazed wares. His forms are rather diverse, making everything from tea utensils to large bowl forms and is well know for his highest level faceted bowls and open tsubo which have been exhibited at several national craft exhibits.

Illustrated is a pot that adheres to Ando’s precepts in regards to making pottery. This vase is a simple and noble kinuta mallet form with Ando’s Oribe style haiyu-kairagi glaze which has been fired in a wood kiln. Despite the simplicity of form, the faceted planes together with the highly active surface make for a very complex vessel, one that gives the viewer a lot to take in and even more to think about. There certainly is a lot to be said for simplicity, clarity and refinement. (*Quoted from MINO; 30 Anniversary DMCAA)