Illustrated is a stoneware
tsubo glazed in my temmoku and ash (t&a not to be confused with t&a,
thrown & altered) over a heavily paddled surface. Now I would be remiss if I didn't state the obvious, these tsubo are influenced by the "big
three", Hamada Shoji, Bernard Leach and Warren MacKenzie but there is
another influence equal to the others and that is from Bill Klock. When I first
stepped in to Bill's studio/ classroom there was always a constant discussion
about ash and "dobi" glazes as well as pots in every free space with
stamped or paddled decoration. Though Bill was influenced by Leach, Hamada and
Cardew who he would visit on down time at the Leach Pottery, I was most
influenced by how he handled the clay, forcefully paddled or stamped the pots
and just how he went about glazing each piece. To this day at each and every
step along the process I am thinking of what I can only think to call the
"big four" as each of these potters has made it into my thought
process of making and glazing while hopefully making pots that come across as
distinctly my own.
"What the world calls
originality is only an unaccustomed method of tickling it." George Bernard
Shaw
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