CLAY, IRON, SPAR & ASH

A super thick crawled Shino glaze with hints of the iron underneath and areas of natural ash coating the surface are all the textbook characteristics of an Oni-Shino vase by Tsukigata Nahiko. Though perhaps a little different than we are used to, this vase has a number of the classic traits that make a Tsukigata pot right down to this oft used form. The way the ash has created a mottled appearance to the piece adds to the chance, serendipity that makes Oni-Shino wonderful, it is this unpredictability that builds universes in clay and glaze that draws me to his work time and time again. I know that there are many styles of glazing and wood fired pots that have wonderful surfaces of innumerable possibilities just like Tsukigata but it is the complexity and diversity of his pots that blend a simple clay and a few other simple elements in to inexhaustible landscapes that few others can do that makes a potent and surreal monuments to a potter, some materials and the energy of unbridled flame.