I have mentioned previously that after my first trip
to Japan, I became interested in bells as a form more than as the functional
object. If you look at bells from ancient China and medieval Japan, the forms,
decoration and construction of these objects is wonderful with such a wide
variety all created for the nearly exactly the same purpose. Using the dotaku
bell form as a starting point, I like making these thrown and altered pieces
and in this case, a simple piece with an incised grasses pattern under my rich
lepidolite Oribe. In making this piece, I tried to keep the lines crisp,
forming graduated angles and then added lugs to either side of the pot and a
thrown neck/mouth to complete the pot. Due to my shortage of materials, the
glaze was sparingly and carefully brushed on to the piece once bisque with
areas receiving a secondary coat around the shoulder, neck and mouth. I thought
this pot came out rather well and that was the sole reason that I found the pot
lepidolite worthy, as the matrial runs out I will have to be more and more
selective as to where it should be used and in the mean time, the testing to
get a closer version of this glaze moves ever forward.
.JPG)