CROSS CULTURAL

Years ago I saw this Paleo-Indian stone axe at the Natural History Museum and I was struck by the form and it almost sculptural elements. The form was conical and about 2/3 of the way down the form was this highly polished channel that ran around the axe where the handle was secured and though I didn't know it at the time, the form and particularly the indented area was to have a large influence on my making pots. Starting some time in the early 90's I began making this serving bowls and bowls of all type with a rounded profile interrupted by a concave channel running around the bowl and for the serving pieces I applied small handles that went over the indents to echoes the overall roundness of the forms. The teabowl pictured is one of those typical forms where the fullness of the form is broken with the recessed channel which serves to visually break up the surface as well as to play in to various glaze activities, with runny glazes benefiting the most. The ash glaze over the temmoku is made from ash that I got from my sister-in-law and once screened but not washed, this is the end result. As anyone who works with ash can tell you, each and every batch yields varying properties and results depending on the source and combination of woods not to mention contaminants that went into the general mixture. I tend to test each batch of ash that I receive for any unsatisfactory anomalies but quite frankly it is the constant diversity that I find quite pleasing and it allows a single glaze combination to morph from time to time and create a new look with each new batch.