WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY

What is immediately apparent in this photo is that the color is off, a bit yellow as my "wonder" bulb" finally bite the bust and I had to resort to an ordinary 100 watt bulb right out of the kitchen cupboard for a lighting source. That being said I had a window of opportunity to take some pictures of this classic, little Bizen chaire by Konishi Toko I and I decided this would have to do. Made in the classic hidasuki, fire marks style, this pot was wrapped in some treated straw prior to being fired and that caused the wonderful flashing around the pot creating an abstract and seemingly random design. This chaire is based on a bamboo node and was meticulously thrown of a fine grained clay ending in this formal and precise form which is an excellent vehicle for the hidasuki technique and its time in a noborigama firing. The surface as you can see is nearly perfectly smooth allowing the atmosphere during the firing and the straw wrapping to paint the canvas as closely as intended by the potter. This gem-like chaire has a partner in crime, a bamboo style mizusashi (made at a different time) with just vivid flashing and fuming that creates a stellar surface and like this pot, both add another paragraph to the expanding tome that is Bizen.