SMALL BEGINNINGS

I am acutely aware of the saying uttered in LAWRENCE OF ARABIA and by the 'artificial person" David in PROMETHEUS, "Big things have small beginnings" and for me it was a seed planted during a conversation with Warren MacKenzie many years ago. During some free time, I decided to approach Warren and was asking him about some specific historical Japanese pots and one in particular was a faceted, small Oribe koro which he was acquainted with from the book, SHINO AND ORIBE CERAMICS. The conversation turned to his thoughts and opinion of this green glaze in some relation to his use of the green he was using at the time that was fired in the cooler parts of the kiln. We discussed its use a bit and he thought that it was best used on faceted surfaces to bring out the most of both clay and glaze. I was very pleased at the time to be able to discuss both Oribe and Shino glazes because both have fascinated me my entire adult life. What I did not really know at the time that with Warren's input, my love of Japanese pottery and a springboard green glaze what profound impact  this would have over the years, as I said, a seed was certainly planted. 

I began working with Warren's green glaze first at Cleveland State and through the years I have constantly dabbled with various incarnations moving further from the original glaze and away from the constant need to find more lepidolite. Over the last few years much of my work not related to gallery orders and terra cotta pottery seems to always circle back to Oribe style glazes where I have done hundreds of tests and have so many variations that I sometimes lose track of what I have tried and what has and has not worked, thank goodness for  glaze notebooks. My current testing seems to revolve around what I am calling Kuro-Oribe and it has added a different dimension to what I have actually made before, the big question is why did it take so long?     

Illustrated is a picture of a picture from the book  SHINO AND ORIBE CERAMICS that I mentioned previously. As you can see and as the description relates, this pot was quickly thrown on a wheel and then rather spontaneously faceted to give a rather casual impression while creating some visual drama and more than enough tension. The pot was then dipped partially into the Oribe glaze and fired where the glaze ran and created a beautiful demarcation point between the glazed and unglazed surface showing off the clay and crispness of the facets along with some wonderful deep, dark green drips frozen in movement around the sides as well as hanging of the lip, suspended just before falling in to the abyss of the unglazed interior.  This simple, subtle pot has a certain depth, a mysterious (yugen) quality to it that I suspect appeals to most people that see it; a simple pot, a simple conversation and a long road to travel.