I
have never been one to make chaire necessarily, but was asked to recently by a
customer. Instead, I decided to make a small covered spice jar, because after
all, "he who controls the spice, controls the universe". My basic
hesitancy to make chaire stems from an inability to acquire bone, horn, wood or
ivory lids for the pot and as such I prefer to just make a very small covered
jar and let people use them for whatever they will. The illustrated piece, with
and without the lid, is under 3.5" tall and is glazed overall in a temmoku
and then dipped in the iron red, tetsu-yu glaze. The chaire is glazed overall,
including the rim and the lid was fired separately. Aside from the glaze, the
only decoration to the pot is the incised line around the shoulder and the one
pronounced drip on the front of the pot. I made a group of these small jars in
the last firing as they fit easily around other pieces. As energy costs
continue to go up, I am looking for filler to take up every nook and cranny of
the kiln and these small jars along with other small pieces help fill up space
that previously may have been empty.
It
would seem, every new pot presents some type of hurdle in the throwing, tooling
or glazing, why should these be any different. Throwing the lid is a chore as I
am 6'2" with large hands and making the tiny lids proved to be less than
fun and I had to "reconstruct" a pair of old glaze tongs to hold and
dip the little jars in the glaze. With no area on the foot or base to hold on
to, tongs seemed the natural solution for dipping the pieces. The scale of the
pot may have posed a few new challenges but one thing is for sure, it is easy
to pack, uses very little bubble-wrap and fits in the free USPS Priority
box!
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