Monday, September 30, 2019

FISHIN'

For quite some time now I have discovered that ink can be my friend when setting up various designs to carve, in this case a Fishin' design orchestrated around a molded square plate form. Using three parts water to one part ink to stretch it out, I can work out a design and figure out where various elements should go as you can see in this photo. It is not exactly the "measure twice, cut once" method but I can tell you once you have started to incise or carve a design, you are locked in to how and where the design goes. Quite a few of these designs are worked out in advance on scrap pieces of paper, many recycled from my wife's home office which allows me to fine tune the decoration as much as possible until it is time to render it on a  three dimensional form. Granted despite these efforts, not every design translates from paper to pot and some designs just don't work because they are not very good or interesting but I can tell you that far fewer pieces end up in the clay recycle than they used to before I decided that "if you take your time, you get a more harmonious outcome".

Friday, September 27, 2019

ECHO

I'll start out by saying that I intentionally altered the "brightness" of this photo so that you can see the details just a bit better and in doing so may have altered the actual color of this piece. I say may have because obviously this is not my photo nor have I seen this piece in hand but I think we are close enough to the actual visual values of the pot and seeing the piece a bit better is worth the risk in my opinion. This particular Touko-ao tsubo is a bit different than many that you see, it has a classic medieval Persian urn form with accented lobes to alter the pot just a bit and then has the wonderful dark indigo blue to black decoration that immediately brings Kato Kenji to mind. The opaque style glaze just gives the piece a sense of age, a classic surface that doesn't obscure the decoration or form but simply enhances it all the while dancing on the razor's edge between the old and the new. When the pot was glazed, Kato Kenji decided to allow the rich earthenware to speak up and act as a eloquent contributor to the overall presentation which is juxtaposed so well against the archaic Persian blue appearance. Though not a large pot in scale and despite its quiet and serene nature, this signature style tsubo has both the elegance and nobility that echoes across time from the ageless archetype to present day.

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

SOMETSUKE OBI

I suspect this is something you don't see every day, it is a traditional off white silk obi with a brushed design by none other than Tomimoto Kenkichi.  Painted in three distinct tones of blue imitating his brilliant sometsuke painting, this quaint and quiet scene is one of Tomimoto's classic designs and can be seen on a number of his pottery pieces from stoneware, slipware and porcelain in blue and white decoration.  Tomimoto was a rather diverse artist and is known for everything from printmaking to pottery with a number of kimono and obi that he designed and/or decorated being extant. I realize that this is not exactly pottery related other than in a circuitous manner but in Japanese arts each thing is related to another in both direct and subtle ways and it is quite easy to image Tomimoto decorating using this design on a piece of porcelain as easily as it is to imagine him decorating this somewhat unique obi.

"Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well." John W. Gardner

Monday, September 23, 2019

THREE IN A ROW

Typical Monday, made a good solid plan for studio tasks on Sunday and executed it today. These three in a row covered pieces and lids are close to the finishing touches for, you guessed it, the third kiln load of pots that should finish this terra cotta cycle. On the board are two taller covered forms and one covered serving bowl, all three will be finished off in carved black slip, tebori style with something just a bit new added. At the moment I am unclear what the next cycle will be and I suspect due to some back log it is likely to be terra cotta. Though I have a few things in stoneware I would like to pursue for myself, orders and commissions take precedence over  following an idea at the moment. I have to admit, I love making covered pots from serving bowls to cap jars and beyond, truth is that I really enjoy covered pots in general as well, especially mizusashi. The hidden space, the volume hinted at from the form interests me plus the bonus of the mysterious contents. Over the years I have had customers tell me that they use my lidded pieces for every conceivable use from pet food to the final resting place of loved ones (i.e. ashes) which has also included the ashes of a cremated pet snake which was fired on one of my large plates that I had made, garbage fired style and later housed in a jar from the same firing, well what little was left over. This leads me to wonder what's in your jar?

(And just in case someone wants to know why three, it is simple, that is all that fits on an average ware board.)

Friday, September 20, 2019

OMIYAGE (?)

Illustrated is a rather well fired Shigaraki chaire by veteran potter, Okano Hosei (b.1937). The chaire looks like it is right out of the feudal past and the volume of the piece is quite easy to imagine clothed in an all natural ash surface like a tailored suit.  The battle between clay and fire is well on display as varying ash effects compete to depict the fierce interaction with beautiful areas of a brown tinged bidoro running down the face adding a hint of verticality to the pot. This chaire is rather classic and even typical of the vocabulary of surfaces that are seen on Okano's pottery show casing an experienced sensitivity of the demands of the form and where they are to be placed in the kiln gleaned from decades of experience. On a side note in1982 a piece by Okano Hosei was gifted from then prime Minister Nakasone to visiting President Ronald Regan and then again an Okano "souvenir" (omiyage?) was  given to visiting Mikal Gorbachev in 1993. I guess there could be far worse gifts than a nice little gem like this medieval chaire, I usually get socks.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

ORIBE FAN?

I had meant to put this photo up a while back when I actually had the piece in my hands and it was for sale but it honestly just slipped my mind. What really interests me in this piece beside the vivid use of Oribe glaze and the strong form is the way the clay was cut, ripped and even brutalized to create such a wild topography, a narrative of movement and spirit. One thing I can say about this mizusashi is that there are details everywhere you look that catch the eye and show off the talents of Higashida Shigemasa that carries on from one pot to the next, a way he handles clay that leaves no doubt as to who made the piece. Though not exactly a predictable surface, what is clear in Higashida's work is an almost deconstruction of the pot from without and a tense and dramatic volume from within striking a near perfect balance in how he sees and creates his forms. The last thing I would like to point out is how casually the glaze appears to have been applied with areas of rich, running green enhancing the landscape of the mizusashi where the clay texture is clear to see just adding more depth and life to what is a rather nice pot even if you aren't a huge Oribe fan.

Monday, September 16, 2019

GANG OF FOUR

A lot of the summer heat has gone and now it makes working in the studio much more enjoyable at a time when I get quite a bit busier. The last two cycles have been terra cotta pieces focused around the abstrakt resist, black & white slipware, tebori  and the newer snowberry pieces and variants on that theme. The illustrated gang of four shows off four stacked snowberry pieces which were part of a series of twelve bowls of similar weight and size though the decoration is entirely freehanded without any measurement at all relying on what seems right more than exact, precise repetition. I prefer this methodology when working using approximately the same amount of clay for each piece without weighing them and then just adding the decoration as I get to each piece though I do admit to using ink to ballpark varying segments breaking down the bowl into 3, 4, 6 or 8 areas. I am sure there are potters and customers who prefer a more exacting approach to the finished product and that's fine but this works for me, fits my temperament and certainly goes best with the music that I listen to.

Friday, September 13, 2019

FINER POINTS

I am constantly in awe of those details, the finer points that tell you so much about a pot and to be quite frank, about the potter. The detail shot of this Shigaraki henko is imbued with a strength and power which blends a medieval aesthetic with a sense of stream lined modernism that few are capable of instilling in their work. Admittedly, the firing process should take some of the credit, but it is the potter, in this case Furutani Michio who made the clay, worked out an idea and manifest it in this plastic material. Through his exceptional knowledge of kiln building, built a kiln, well numerous kilns, choose the right combinations of woods and out of all of this experimentation, effort and expertise comes pot after pot that was only a spark, an inclination before the potter intervened. I think there is magic in the works of potters like Furutani Michio and through small glimpses in to the details of their works, you can isolate the wizardry and alchemy that perpetually fascinate.

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

FRACTURED ICE

What a wondrous thing that glazes can be, whether they are naturally occurring or composed like some alchemists symphony, the possibility and effects are endless. When I really think about glazes is that they have the distinct possibility to present defined galaxies within their surfaces painting ominous and somber realms to those of great visual intensity as if a sun has gone supernova within them. Though there are a great number of stellar pots that bare no glaze and submit to the viewer as naked form, there are an equal number that are only completed with the addition of glaze and decoration adding depth and profundity to the canvas that is clay. Illustrated is a close up of a rich and evocative kannyu style seiji glaze that almost radiates the cold like the fractured ice that it seemingly imitates. I find these cracked and fractured surfaces to be mysterious and compelling leading me along in a narrative that the potter, clay and glazes has created. In this case, this detail shot is of a tall and elegant bottle-vase made by Minegishi Seiko only a few years ago of tapering form with lobes running vertically accentuating the stature of the piece and the glaze which descends into the depression; a perfect meld of the Chinese archetype and the Japanese interpretation. More images to follow.

Monday, September 9, 2019

C&H DAY

This morning was taken up with running some errands near and far and when I finally got home it was time to get to work making some pots. I am still in a terra cotta cycle and needed to get a number of small bowls and teabowls made as well as a group of 3lb bowls, several covered serving bowls and a couple of "cookie jar" forms made before the end of the day. The first board full of pots, seen here went exactly as planned, a group of four small bowls, a v-bowl and a small serving bowl, the group that followed ended up being four covered serving bowls and matching lids on my longest ware board at just about six feet long. The last board was filled with four 12" v-bowls with four teabowls tucked neatly in to the spaces on each side. I deviated a bit from the plan, perhaps procrastinating just a bit and will need to make several covered pieces when I get back to throwing but plans are made to be broken as long as the boards get filled.

"You just can't turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood. What mood is that? Last-minute panic."  Bill Watterson

Friday, September 6, 2019

KUJAKU-YU TWO

Being Friday I thought to try to tie up a few lose ends and since I had received a few inquiries, I decided to post up the overall view of this Kujaku-yu glazed hanaire by Miura Shurei. As you can see from this composite overall of the front and back, the form is elegant with long sweeping vertical facets that highlight the glaze and create stark planes of visual interest. The rich, iridescent glaze is a beautiful tight cloak of varying effects that is reminiscent of exotic peacock feather, hence the name that fits the vessel as if it were created for it or more likely the other way around in this case. There is a real beauty in the marriage of form and surface of this piece which has traces of varying Chinese archetypes though handled distinctly in a way only Miura-san could manage. It is abundantly clear why Madame Kikuchi thought highly of this potter and this surface and once you have seen this combination in person, its haunting conversation becomes a new addition to your pottery lexicon.

You can see the original detail oriented post for this vase here; https://albedo3studio.blogspot.com/search?q=shurei

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

DICHOTOMY

A good friend of mine used to send me photos of random things that he would see, things that spoke to him, things that embodied the seeming dichotomy of simplicity and complexity. On one of his random walk-abouts he came across an ovoid rock, tumbled through centuries of geologic upheaval to end up in his pocket and one of his favorite objects. Over the years I have thought about his story and his chance encounter with a stone (which I am now the custodian of) and see that same dichotomy in pots including this Tokoname chawan by Ito Yushi which blend an unpretentious form and surface that at first glance is simple as well. As you look at the surface, the dark, iron rich clay body shows through where the poured slip didn't fully engulf the bowl and then the effects of the salt firing accentuates the nuances of the overall pot. The crackled slip shows hints of a bouquet of colors; silvers, grey, orange, coral and white with hints of the iron clay coming through where surface is fissured. Kumano and Tsukigata notwithstanding, I like a quiet pot, rich in visual and tactile nourishment, a piece that has to be unraveled  where subtlety and nuance are the real main characters of the narrative and if you have the time, there is a lot to see and enjoy in such a simple bowl.

(See a previous post in refernce to Ito Yushi here; https://albedo3studio.blogspot.com/search?q=yushi )

Monday, September 2, 2019

CIRCA 1990

I was sent a group of photos a short while back of several of my pots that were in an auction in Cleveland which all date back to my first year at CSU, circa 1990. This illustrated slipware wallbowl was made way back when I had been making pots for about a year and was the origins of the wallbowl which I make to this day. This particular piece probably measures under 14" across and has a black slip base with brushed on sky blue and leaf green and then is completed with thick black trailed accents. If memory serves me, the stains all came from someone who was moving out of the area and was done in clay so I inherited a lot of misc. materials including about 40 pounds of various colorants so I was constantly looking for ways to make use of the materials. I think it important to note that when these were made I had been throwing for about a year and was beginning to hone in on slipware as a preferred way to work which would ultimately be distilled down to mostly black and white work. I distinctly remember making quite a bit of various slip oriented pieces on terra cotta over a two to three month period before really defining what I was after and this pot like quite few others was among the first steps to a journey that has miles yet to go.

"From the end springs new beginnings."  Pliny the Elder

As a mandated public service announcement, don't forget to put away your John Travolta, SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER inspired suits until next year as Labor Day is here and white is out.