PERSPECTIVE

perspective; pər-ˈspek-tiv, the capacity to view things in their true relations or relative importance

Every now and again my wife will look at a pot up on my blog and tell me that I need to add something to help define the size and volume of a pot. On eBay I have seen pop cans, cigarette lighters and packs, dollar bills and a host of other daily objects but I just don't find my way to using these objects, I would rather let the photo imply the size and let the viewer work out the mental math and imagery. In my years of making pots, loading kilns and making commissions I think I have become rather adept at understanding volume in the abstract until every once and a while a pot will show up that just defies the actual dimensions and the scale and volume catch me off guard.

Illustrated is a pot, well actually two pots that arrived here within a few days of each other by sheer happenstance and an example of not being fully prepared for the size of a piece. What you are looking at is a good size Shino chawan over 13cm across by Matsuzaki Ken inside a rather large Shino O-tsubo by the same potter which I thought may illustrate the point of perspective. The chawan was carefully placed inside the o-tsubo which are both glazed in the same fashion, a thin coat of Shino with a much thick, viscous layer of Shino being applied with the potter's hand and raked and in the doing leaving swaths of almost pure white in his wake. The two pots from different sources were both wood fired and have areas of various other effects across the surface including rich, iridescent yohen and ash dusted about the surfaces and interior of the chawan. The other interesting thing about these pieces is that both of them were bought out of exhibitions in Japan and are both illustrated in the accompanying catalogues. Maybe my wife is right, sometimes using the right object to show scale and volume is exactly what is called for.