FACETED BLUE

I was quite aware of Phil Rogers and his work before I ever met him, I had several of his books and seen a number of his pots at various places with their rich  ash glazed or salt fired surfaces. I was fortunate to have met Phil in 2003(?) at  a Wesleyan Potters workshop and found that we had quite a lot in common regarding what potters and pots interested us so we kept in touch by email over the years. Beyond a few email exchanges it was clear that Phil was interested in collecting Hamada and Shimaoka pots which I stumbled on to from time to time and he was very keen on trading his pots for theirs when I would find something. By trading I was able to acquire a few very fine pots by Phil including a really large salt fired jug and a faceted cobalt bottle among other thing. After his trip to South Korea we lost touch as he was busy with a new family and working toward some wood firings but I enjoyed our trading and emails over the years quite a bit.     

Illustrated is a rather well salt fired cobalt bottle faceted across for planes that shows a rather diverse topography of depth of color and texture. Beyond the color and texture the neck and mouth are perfect and ringed by a wet ring of slat that varies in color and the foot is crisply and expertly cut and flanked by his personal mark and the mark of his pottery. Having some personal insight into a potter leads to a deeper connection with the pot and at times helps answers regarding the how and why certain details are the way they are and to be perfectly honest it really doesn't hurt knowing that both Phil and I were looking at exactly the same pots which make their way in to our pots even if it doesn't look like it.

FIVE BY FIVE

Illustrated is a greenware tebori XOXO covered jar that was one of five made at one sitting and dealt with the next day, morning for trimming, constructing and slipping and late afternoon for carving. Unlike a lot of other potters where I see dozens of the same thing I tend to stick to a dozen or less of a single pot to keep things interesting for me. This covered jar was thrown out of terra cotta, about 3 lbs of clay with matching lid, tooled, had a "broken branch" style knob affixed to the lid, black slipped and then carved later that afternoon with this simple XOXO patterned. Honestly the most difficult and time consuming part of this covered jar and getting the knob just right and getting it securely attached to the lid at the right time so that once fired there are no fine line cracks. Other than the trimming, slipping and carving, throwing five jars and five lids is quite an enjoyable way to spend some time while listening to in this case to one of my 80s remixes CDs.

MORE IS ALWAYS BETTER

 This morning I happened to spot a rather familiar looking Iga henko form on Instagram and that made me go back and look through my archive of photos on the hard drive to come up with this particular photo. As I mentioned, the two pieces could in fact be from the same series made within hours or days of each other and both fired in the same kiln but that being posited the truth is that I have now seen five of these forms by Iga potter, Imura Mitsuo who learned a great dealer from his teacher, Sugimoto Sadamitsu an influence that is easy to see in how the clay is handled and the pots are fired. As for the five similar henko, two were in catalogues/ magazines, one was shared by a friend over the internet, two of the pieces were seen in hand and lastly there was the one this morning on Instagram. Now if the math doesn't add up in your book that is because this piece is also one of the two illustrated in a catalogue, just wanted to get that out in the open.   

This Iga henko is a perfect size, it is about 14" or so long and was made with a wonderful taper moving toward the sides emanating out from the well considered and crumbly style texture to the mouth. Perhaps one rather interesting feature to this piece as with most that I have seen it that it was fired on their sides allowing for the ash built up during the firing to cascade down the surface making for a rather dramatic and effective look on the pot. The surface of the piece is a wonderful narrative of the possibilities of firing from a bit of hiiro fire color to green glass like ash, long, determined ash flow and areas of carburized surface where charcoal built up around the base of the pot as it was fired telling its story of creation. All in all, the form of this henko by Imura Mitsuo works very well with the manner in which it was fired with its varied surfaces, well enough I should say that there are a number of these pots floating around out there and if one is good, more is always better.

A SMALL GLIMPSE OF DAI-KANNYU

Up next at I,Potter TV, well on Youtube to be fair is this splendid Yamato Yasuo Dai-Kannyu (kairagi)  Hagi guinomi. I made this short video slideshow using what details I thought best captured the essence of this diminutive but impactful guinomi giving a small glimpse of dai-kannyu in the round. The dai-kannyu, big cracks are certainly front and center on this piece and rather hard to miss  with a surfacethat looks very different under varying light sources. There is a real beauty to the soft multi-layered appearance of the Hagi glaze that is almost brutally interrupted by the deep, tactile fissures that define Yamato Yasuo's dai-kannyu pottery of which this is just a very small example but illustrative of the effect and process that he has embarked upon. Enjoy the video. 

FLOODED

Illustrated is before and after views of a yunomi showing off a floral design that I first used all the way back in Cleveland. On the left is obviously the yunomi just out of the bisque showing a blossom on one side of the piece while on the left is the fully glazed pot with the blossom from the other side. I admit the surface looks a bit odd as I flooded the yunomi with light to best showcase the design under the darkish AO+ glaze which under normal light you can see the design but I just couldn't get a picture capture the image with resorting to this method. As you can see the yunomi is a rather simple affair as is the black slip design but once glaze fired the whole thing changes by softening the blossom and creating dimension to the surface. Admittedly there isn't that much complication to this yunomi, one extra of a set of eight made and honestly I wouldn't have it any other way. We are off to test this one in real world situations as my wife has decided we needed one more mismatched pot in the cupboard.

OGAWA MISHIMA

If you happen to like Korean influenced mishima inlay than this mizusashi is certainly for you, a tour de force of decoration created by a master who has dedicated his life to working with primarily white slips, Ogawa Tetsuo. This solid mizusashi is decorated in two large bands of impressed and inlaid decoration with smaller horizontal decoration breaking up the surface a bit and creating a strong and traditional appearance that would be at home in any tea room. After the pot was thrown, the overall decoration was impressed in to the surface where a layer of white slip was then applied and "forced" into the depressed areas and allowed to dry before it was then scraped off likely using a sharp kanna or metal rib. The slip, like a kohiki slip shows wonderful areas of color and blushing through the transparent top glaze that makes for a rather variegated surface that would be impossible to tire of. Though this Buncheong style originated in Korea, Ogawa Tetsuo has managed to grapple with the technique and mastered it along the way and adding to the mishima and kohiki traditions creating pots that converses in his very own voice.

SPHERES

Yuri-kinsai is rather complex technique where a potter applies silver, gold or platinum or any combination of them to the surface of a fired pot that is then repeatedly fired and finally glazed. In theory it may sound simple enough but getting everything just right ends up being the complication ending up in a percentage of loss. This somewhat simple, full and rounded pot was made by Nakada Kazuo who like several predecessors, specializes in rather exacting and sometimes intricate and complicated decoration tailored to each unique form. In this case, Nakada has cut out and applied a series of graduated spheres to match the form in both silver and gold and covered the face of the pot bringing life and unpredictable movement to the piece. The small but careful attention to details regarding the neck and mouth are a fitting addition to the form which helps guide the eye on to the top, shoulder and body of the small vase without overwhelming the rhythm and poetry of the whole. Nakada has chosen the perfect decoration for this nearly perfectly round pot, design composed of circles upon circles perhaps one of the oldest symbols known to man and something everyone responds to on a wide array of levels though not as equidistant as all the points in a circle.

A (BASE) GLAZE ODYSSEY

As I continued to test the Kuro-Oribe style glaze that I was working with I began to see qualities in it that reminded me of a series of Kurogaratsu pots that I had seen in an exhibition years ago. At this point I decided to start running a parallel line of tests to see if it could be altered  to take on some of the characteristics of what I had seen firsthand and this is the first larger, well larger than a pod or guinomi test to come out. Using the same base glaze* as my Oribe, I added iron, a pinch of copper and some finely ground ash and then a mixed wash of oxides was unevenly put over the surface and here is how it turned out. The sandy clay was made here in small batches and had the grain of the clay opened during the tooling process to further activate the surface which I think it did to good effect. Though a bit hard to see in this reflective nightmare, the surface has a wide array of depths of color from ambers to a chocolaty brown with various tendrils of mixed irons droozing down the surface, proof alone for the theory of gravity if ever it were needed. I should just mention that I began using this altered base glaze almost 15 years ago and it has been a true windfall as it has been the starting point for quite a lot of the work I have done in stoneware and porcelain for the same amount of time. Now if only I could figure out a way to make an Oni-Shino glaze out of this base maybe I could stop all this testing.  

(*The original formula of this base glaze was given to me by a potter while I lived in Cleveland though I never used it at that time. Years later when I moved here to central NY State I finally tested it and didn't like it right out of the box so I kept modifying it until it suited my needs. I think at this point the formulas are significantly different but without his generosity the odyssey that is this base would likely have never happened.)

TMC

There is something about a pot that is traditional and practical but at the same time has certain modern elements in its appearance. I think for the most part the modern is really just an extension of the potter's voice working through clay in a medium that is thousands of years old and a tradition that goes back to the middle ages in Japan to the birth of chanoyu. This rather straight forward Bizen mizusashi by Yokoyama Naoki is an excellent case in point where there are certain constraints placed upon the potter to fulfill the purpose, the intent of the pot, operating within some traditional guidelines while exercising a degree of personal expression and energy to create a modern pot. Casually thrown, the form has been interrupted by the addition of not only well placed lugs but by marks impressed as the wheel was moving to trick the eye in to seeing the continued sense of motion once the pot was fired. Likewise the well conceived lid has had marks added to create visual interest and to clearly define the lid with its pinched knob to act as the termination of the form. Though perhaps now better known for his shizen neriage and nerikomi work, this mizusashi clearly shows a maturity of Yokoyama's noborigama firing where the surface has just the right amount of ash deposit and flashing to enhance and not obscure the surface presenting a timeless modern classic to a centuries old tradition.

NUANCED DETAILS

Sometimes when you look at a pot, you can plainly see that a potter was listening and watching very carefully everything his master said and did. In watching the creation or design of a pot, you can see the nuanced decision making and the subtleties that bring clay to life. This is what I see in the works of Kawai Takeichi, attention to detail and a potter who watched and learned while at the same time formulating his own voice within a tradition the survives to this day. This simple molded hachi is a wonderful exercise in a sound form together with a simple iron tessha and an ash glaze that were all used to the fullest proving that a hand full of clay, some basic chemicals can go a rather long why and to rather good effect.     

Starting with the design of the piece which is at its core simple and a homerun of nuanced details, the pot is easy to make and use with visual particulars including the angled corners and raised ridges create an interest in the surface before the glaze is even applied. Once the ash glaze is used Kawai Takeichi ladled over a rich tessha that when fired has added movement and life to the hachi without any fuss or superfluous additions. In the end learning good and practical design from a master like Kawai Kanjiro certainly can not hurt in one's pursuit of creating work based on a tradition while spreading one's wings to make work that is more about the student than the master.

ANOTHER SET

I am always rather pleased to get a dinner ware commission for several reasons, it gives me a concrete objective, allows me to throw and trim until the job is done and of course it helps keep the lights on. In keeping with the back to basics theme this set was simple, place setting for six with dinner plate, luncheon plate and misc. bowl, eighteen pieces in all and thrown in one sitting. The tooling took about the better part of the next day, sanding, loading and bisque firing, glazing which I so truly love (!) and then the completed set. As usual I made seven of each piece and ended up with the place setting as you see it; stoneware glazed in temmoku and medieval green stripes which I sometimes refer to as alien camouflage and it occurred to me after the fact that the pieces could have been oriented in contrasting directions for a better photo but by then it was too late. Perhaps the most arduous part of the process is bubble-wrapping and packing the pieces on my hands and knees with lots of wrap, peanuts and spare cardboard between each piece and then arrange a pick up and away they go. I have made enough of this design that my wife and I now have enough place settings for ourselves that are slightly mismatched but serve our purposes, just another perk of making dinnerware.

BOOKEND(S)

A fellow collector sent this photo which I thought was worth sharing and I should state that I think this makes for an unusual and somewhat exotic bookend. I am not quite sure if you can tell but in point of fact, this solid and sturdy vase is not actually holding up books but rather is at the end of a shelf where their DVDs are stored. What is clear is this is a rather well glazed and fired Oni-Shino vase by Tsukigata Nahiko only recently arrived here in the States and this collector's first piece by the potter. There are two distinct sides of this vase one is all brown crusty ash surrounded by areas of deep, dark iron and then there is this side which was facing away from the fire during the firing process. This side shows off the thick, fractured feldspar Shino surface with a myriad of  effects from the wood firing where the surface has a thick crust around the upper most part of the vase with lots of iron making its way to the surface running along with the natural green ash down the pot. To complete the package this pot came with a shifuku, signed box, outer lacquered storage box and a price sticker stuck to the pot and inner signed box. I think one would have to admit this is a rather nice example to add to a growing Japanese pottery collection but it does make me wonder, what is at the other end of the shelf?

NORTHERN HENKO

Illustrated is a picture that a fellow collector took of his rather nice Furutani Michio henko form absolutely bathing in sunlight. This is an ideal, even classic piece with wonderful proportions and the surface of a nearly perfect firing that lays out a narrative of not only the intensity of the fire but of the creation of the pot as well. Like many of Furutani Michio's pots, the lines of the form are simple enough with marks used sparingly allowing for the placement in the kiln and the process of wood firing to fill out the purpose, narrative and intent of the piece. Though slightly overexposed by the wash of sunlight the firing is clearly painted across the surface with a wonderful array of effects on full display that makes for a rich, in depth conversation with the pot. One of the most interesting things about a form that has more or less become synonymous with Furutani Michio is the uniqueness of each and every piece due to the casual means and methods of the building the pieces where there is no measurement, no templates and only decisions made on the fly during the construction process to fit a specific pot before the potter. This  together with the predictable unpredictability of the firing to paint the forms in flame and ash, as many of these "slab" henko that are out there, no two are the same and each one a new and exciting conversations that never fails to inspire collectors and potters alike.