ONE PING ONLY

I am always reminded in the digital age that you are always just one mouse click away from stumbling on to some pot that is of interest, just one ping only. That is exactly what happened a couple months back when I was pursuing the ubiquitous auction site and came across this handsome fellow complete with signed box, cloth and exhibition flyer. As you can see from the composite photo, the pot is a rather large Oni-Iga yunomi by Tsukigata Nahiko made in or around 1992 according to the enclosed bio. The dark surface is covered in various effects including these rich tendrils of shimmering iron crystals that just add depth and movement to the yunomi that is completed with deep throwing rings around the base which also provide for a nice textural grip. The lip and the foot show classic Tsukigata attributes and the yunomi is finished off with his impressed "moon" seal which also adds a rather nice detail to the simple, utilitarian pot meant as much for contemplation as it is daily use. I can't see getting tired with a yunomi like this on the desk as I surf about looking for another for my wife, after all, this one is all mine.

ONE POUND OF CLAY AND 48"

First thing this Monday morning I am working on making a group of (UFO) serving bowls for an order which ties in well with some other commissions that need to be completed. Add to this that I am working on the second stage testing of a new glaze where I use small test cups to see how things work beyond  test pods and small slabs. These particular bowls are 4.5lb and measure about 16" across which should end up at about 14" when glazed and fired. The currently planning is to glaze a couple of these bowl in my saffron and a couple in temmoku and iron red, both making for rather practical and function surfaces. As for the bowl shape itself, I am sure it has been around for quite some time but honestly, I first started making this form at CSU  literally the very next day after watching EARTH VS THE FLYING SUACERS (1956). I think it is really apparent  by now that I am a product of TV (movies and music) and given enough time and all this "nonsense" in my head will find its way in to my work, one way or another.

F&F

Illustrated is a rather attractive and  henko by Kimura Mitsuru, son-in-law of Kimura Ichiro and inheritor of the distinct  Mashiko tradition established by Hamada Shoji. This robust form has a rich surface that focuses on and highlights the wax resist design of foliage with a soft, soothing green additions to the decoration. As with many (most?) of the Hamada and Kawai school potters, this henko is both a great use of design and form, it is basic simplicity which presents a great surface for glazes and decoration yet even unadorned the lines and scale are perfect for everyday use in the home, the purpose is not overlooked in favor of simply pleasing the eye. 

Basing his work on that of his father, Kimura Mitsuru makes a wide array of pots that borrow design elements and other nuances from Kimura Ichiro but as you look at the work, it is clear that was not their origin though like Hamada and Ichiro alike, the work is a distinct blend of form and function. I really like the cut of this henko, the bones of the piece are seductive and the rich visual appeal of the glaze and decoration simply clinch the deal, all in all a very alluring henko no matter where it was made.

E+E+P=D 2

I had posted up a detail shot of this wonky Shino mizusashi by Suzuki Goro a while back and finally got around to cleaning up some of the pictures so i thought I would post up this overall shot of the piece. I find the way that Suzuki crafted the base to be narrower than the upper most section of the pot to be playful and courageous after all would the bottom support the top as physics has its way in the making, drying and firing?  As you can see the years of experience allow Suzuki Goro quite a bit of latitude when it comes to making pottery, where other forms might fail, a careful understanding and insight into his clay and firing prevails and forms that he is so well known for intrigue viewers and potters alike. I will admit this form though casual and carefree is not nearly as adventurous as some of his pieces but it does have its wonky and out of control moments and the weighty top adds a certain amount of drama that the pot is all the better for processing.

SMALL BATCH

Given the current state of affairs I have had some extra time to work on ideas, test "stuff" and generally just get in trouble. In the past couple of months I have been playing with three new clay bodies that I am working on, each made up as 10lbs of dry material and then made into a slurry, dried on plaster slabs and then wedged thoroughly. One clay body I tested is basically a 60/40 mix of a stoneware and porcelain which is pictured suited up nicely in what I am still erroneously referring to as Kuro-Oribe, after all, everything needs a name. This clay is my second test body, has an off-white color on its own and like the first test body throws rather nicely and tools well even with the coarse additions to the body and it didn't warp in the bisque or glaze firing which is a plus. As you can see I threw a simple teabowl form where I used a metal rib to open up the grain of the clay a bit showing up quite well under the glaze which fits rather well and has a nice overall appearance, looking a bit different than the stoneware or porcelain clays by themselves. The other clay bodies are a new "small batch" porcelain and a somewhat rugged stoneware both of which are showing promise, more as I get out more results.

YOU LOOK MARVELOUS

There are a lot of pots out there made by a lot of potters both past and present that are not great but are just brimming with character, personality and varying appeal and I doubt that will be any different in the foreseeable future. I guess my real point is that a pot doesn't have to be great to pull a viewer or collector in, hook, line and sinker, all it needs is a strength and appeal that is conversant at a variety of levels that sparks a connection. The real question though is where does the character come from, what constitutes that as an attribute; is it the posture, form, surface, idiosyncrasies, movement, lip, interior, kodai, tradition or is it a combination of all those qualities in a subtle and nuanced gesture? However you wish to determine character, I choose to see it as the definable nature, or attribute of a thing and in this specific discussion, I am referring to pottery. I think that ultimately how we see character is far less objective than it is subjective and it boils down to each individual driven by the sum total of their experiences that let us simply conclude that; "you look marvelous".

I have built a slideshow video of a pot that isn't what one thinks of as classically great but it makes up for any perceived short comings by over flowing with character. This chawan is by Hagi veteran, Mukuhara Kashun and is a skillful blend of tradition and personal vision from the wild wari-kodai and cut and reassembled bowl to the rich surface and flowing areas of milky white glaze creating movement around the chawan. There is a playfulness and strength in this chawan which adds to my observation that this bowl has an abundance of character and I hope that after seeing the video you may agree as well.

REPURPOSED

Illustrated is a rather nice Ki-Seto hanaire that apparently started life out as a kake-ire hanging vase though now the hole for the hanger has been plugged with wood and then lacquered over. Truth be told, at nearly 10" tall and not particularly light weight, I don't really see this as a practical hanging vase though i am sure it would have work but the real question is who altered the vase, potter or subsequent owner.

This vase was made by one of Arakawa Toyozo's main students, Nakayama Naoki whose Shino and Ki-seto works bare the strong influence of the master though the details differentiate master from student and in this case the posture and form are quite different as well and the dragged vertical mark adding definition to the form is not quite as modeled as that of Arakawa. As for the surface there is a nice balance of translucent and dry areas giving glimpse of the clay through the glaze which has a wide array of glassy yellow-green areas and shimmery crystals created by the firing and small ash crystals. At the end of the day whether it is free standing or hanging doesn't affect the simple, even noble form and an appearance that looks like it has traveled from a point in the very distant past.

Perhaps not 100% applicable but interesting none the less; "Uncommon thinkers reuse what common thinkers refuse."  JRD Tata

INTERRUPTED RHYTHM

Despite the fact that the way I am faceting pieces creates a distinct and somewhat unpredictable pattern around a piece, I have been working on simple and fast ways to further interrupt the rhythm of the surface and in this particular case I simply added an additional angled facet to every other boundary. This wasn't any momentous addition or move but it does seem to break up the overall flow just enough to make the eye pass over the surface a bit differently than it would without the added half facets. Thrown out of about two pounds of clay and just over six inches wet the surface is further broken up a bit using grog in the clay, something I don't do too often as it is murder on the calluses on the hands but I like the effect especially under transparent glazes. It never ceases to amaze me how such a small detail can change the entire look of a pot or anything else for that matter.

SHOW OFF

I am not sure what the weather is like where every you are but sunshine has been  intermittent in recent days. On the day that this piece was photographed the forecast called for overcast which we did have until this momentary respite in which the Sun cast it long, warm reach into our back room and coated the shelves in a wave of light and shadow. Peeking out of the shadows is this very nice little koro made of porcelain with yuriko underglaze shining at the surface with tones of red, grey and green decorating the piece in a myriad of vines and birds circling the piece. 

Made by Yoshida Takashi, this koro was thrown out of a dense, white porcelain and then had feet attached to the base and a lid thrown and pierced to complete the form. The lid compliments the pot quite well and fits the koro so precisely that there is literally no play between pot and lid. As you can see in the picture the arabesque style underglaze decoration was rendered in a steady and well practiced hand in which Yoshida used motifs that can be seen on quite a few of his pots from large to small and everything in between. I think the sun has done right by this pot showing off the nuances and subtleties of the decoration allowing all of the variations within the brushstrokes to step up and be noticed.

SAIDEIKA

Illustrated is a rather simple and unadorned saideika clay style mizusashi by Yachimata, Chiba resident; Misaki Mitsukuni (b.1951) which is a masters course in the complexity of simplicity. Misaki was originally influenced to make ceramics after an encounter with noted scholar and potter Koyama Fujio in 1972 and was further influenced by the works of Mark Rothko in terms of surface and interplay between the graceful form and surface. This particular hand built mizusashi is nothing but curves, an organic presence that reminds me of full, fat adzuki beans with a subtle and complex palette created by layering liquid clay to create an elegant and contemplative journey. Misaki won Kikuchi Biennial Grand prize 2013 for this style work which seems a marriage of some alien organic life together with a unconscious episode of "happening" that should resonate with even the most ardent vessel traditionalist.

FIRST STUDIO

I found this picture the other day and though not exactly the best photo it clearly shows a series of teapots and pouring vessels that date back to 1993. The photo is from my first studio since leaving Cleveland State, the shelves were made out of scrap wood that was found in the two separated basements of a duplex in Cleveland Heights which my ex-partner and her mother had just bought that was where I worked for about 2 years or so. All of the work at this time was terra cotta and fired in two brand new electric kilns with about half of the work I made going to my ex-partner to decorate in her signature style. Half our time was spent making pots and the other half went in to the initial rehab of the building, truth be told, I am not sure which one of us was less tethered to reality but both tasks got done despite the fact that most times we worked in over 6" of water on the floor! Ultimately my wife and I bought a house and I moved my clay, supplies and kilns to that location though I continued to make "blanks" for my ex-partner to decorate as she saw fit, this was studio number two where I began working all by myself with no one else moaning about my music or hours.

If memory serves me correctly, I was making teapots, pouring vessels and pitchers for shows in Washington State, Massachusetts and in Cleveland at the GBF Gallery. The truth is, I had been making pots for only about 3 years and winging the forms and decoration as I went along, in other words, little has changed. I have always liked making pots that needed some assembly required and the pieces parts of teapots in particular where always both a challenge and time well spent. I realize this isn't a great photo but when I ran in to it, I just couldn't resist posting it up.

FROM THERE TO HERE

Unless I am mistaken, I think that when most people think about the works of Sakai Kobu what immediately springs to mind is his translucent, wet and ethereal Kobu-Shino glaze that he is now best known for. Like most potters though, Sakai started out as a Mino potter who made works in two distinct styles of traditionally oriented Shino glazes; one was like most of his contemporaries and the other  a drier, stiffer surface that is still obviously Shino but has shed the fat and creamy qualities that many have been in pursuit of. As you can see in the illustration, the basics are the same, the buff clay body is covered in a thin iron slip over which this drier Shino glaze is applied and once fired there is a crispness to the design yet the surface is still readily identifiable as Shino-yaki.

I like this surface and actually find there are corollaries with his best known Kobu-Shino; there is a quietness to these pieces yet they have quite a bit to say in a contemplative fashion where there are no bells and whistles only the bare essentials of a narrative in three dimensions. I am fond of the Kobu-Shino pots and always welcome the opportunity to handle and study them when the chance arrives but I suspect without this drier, more traditional glaze variant and all the others that he worked through it is unlikely that what he is best known for would have ever been created, potters and their pots generally evolve in a mostly linear pathway, from there to here. More to follow as I get around to building a video slideshow of this Shino mizusashi.

EVERYDAY

Illustrated is a kama-hen Shino kabin by Mizuno Takuzo made back in the late 1980s. The honesty and directness of the form, surface and intent of this pot really appeals to me, there is nothing flashy, Mizuno threw a simple, everyday traditional form, glazed it in his "regular" Shino glaze and then put it in the kiln and fired it. In doing all of these simple and ordinary tasks that potters do every day and relying on his years of experience, he handed over the reins to the kiln, the fire and a select choice of wood to complete the painting and narrative of the pot and that is what you see here. The beauty of a pot of this type is that it is simple, an accumulation of everything going right and moving a simple vase from the everyday to wanting to see it and communicating with it each and every day, you can't really ask for too much more.