HORNBY REVISITED

I decided to revisit this oilspot style temmoku covered box to fill in some of the back story as to how it came to us, this was a gift from a generous Cleveland couple who had recently visited Hornby Island while on a trip to Vancouver and Vancouver Island. The couple who were rather active patrons of the arts were very supportive while I was setting up my first studio had brought back a number of pots from the area but were fixated on one potter in particular, Wayne Ngan. Knowing our love of pots, this was a rather thoughtful gift, a gift of a pot by what I have long considered a potter's potter, a potter who held clay, the process and firing in the highest regard and tried to let the clay speak through him to arrive at its intended spirit. 

This spirited covered box form is no exception, finely thrown out of stoneware, the form and subsequent faceting bring dimension and movement to the piece and the use of this enigmatic glaze was a perfect match to bring the clay form to life. As for the oilspot temmoku surface, the top of the lid is flanked by a myriad of rusty iron spots imitating the night sky while the more vertical areas have spotting and streaking that add motion and a pleasing visual effect that keeps ones attention looking for what else can be seen on the exterior. The pot's bottom is surrounded by a roll of fat temmoku glaze and the flat plane is punctuated by Ngan's impressed square seal, the final mark of the potter making for a sturdy and perfect base. This pot has been around for a very long time now and with each visit, each quiet conversation it still has a lot to say about a potter and his vision.      

(Sorry for revisiting this pot but as I was looking at it the other morning I thought of our wonderful visits with Bob and Dee and wanted to recount their kindness and time sharing their collection with us from Warren Mackenzie to Betty Woodman not to mention their intimate knowledge of many of the best places to eat in and around Cleveland!)

GO FIGURE

Though I am tragically impatient, I do seem to have just enough to test new batches of materials especially ash as they come in the door, a potter's version of trust but verify. Illustrated is a recent glaze test on a small cup that didn't exactly work the way it had previously as it decided to not stay put, run off the pot and forever meld itself with a small piece of soft brick I had cut and placed under the piece. Though you'll have to take my word for it, I made the formula up as I have a dozen or more times though in bigger batches using not one but two new materials, ash from a friend and frit which has been as constant as the North Star. I am back in a terra cotta cycle but will have to retest this formula as soon as I can as I am hamstrung without this glaze and would love to get this conundrum worked out, adjusted and back into the rotation. I realize the ash in glazes can but filled with variables but it does seem this happens far more often than I would like, go figure.

NOSTALGIC

Sitting on a shelf next to a small group of teabowls by Bill Klock is one of many physical reminders of our time in Cleveland, a small teabowl by Bill Brouillard. This ash glazed and iron accented bowl is thrown thin, light and the ash glaze helps bring the form to life and the foot is crisply tooled with a signature cartouche contained within. This teabowl was gift on a visit to his studio located a distance from where he taught alongside Judith Salomon at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Looking around at pieces like this teabowl make me a bit nostalgic for Cleveland which was a wonderful pottery town filled with a broad and diverse group of potters, there are certainly far worse places to work and perhaps few better.

ALMOST

A fellow collector in the North-East sent me this picture a short while ago of a piece by Ikenishi Go with a winter wonderland as a backdrop. At first glance nothing seems awry but the fact is this bowl is almost a chawan but not quite being a 'simple" hachi it apparently can serve in nearly any capacity and as informed by the owner it works just fine as a chawan if not labeled as such. This hachi was thrown and carefully manipulated to have a rather unconscious and unpretentious form and is covered over in a semi-dry coat of Ki-Seto glaze over various incised decoration highlighted by tanpan green accents here and there. This bowl is a bit on the large side and slightly ovalled creating a rather dynamic appearance balanced on its foot while asking to be picked up and enjoyed. Thinking back on the original precepts of tea it is clear to me that despite the lack of a single word on a box lid, if it can fulfill the  function of and fits the general description of a chawan, than what's in a word?  

(Photo by Evan Worley and used with his permission)

BLACK OVER WHITE

In an effort to simplify things and try out a new black glaze at the same time I decided to glaze this sandy mix teabowl with a clear glaze. As you can see the clear allows all the surface texture and stones to show rather nicely adding quite a bit of visual texture to the bowl and the black glaze was trailed on the piece in a casual but somewhat controlled manner. The black glaze is a bit thicker than I wanted but certainly did come out a dark, rich black that really stands out on this surface which is a bit more white than this particular photo shows using simple daylight. The next step in fine tuning this black glaze is to make it up a tiny bit thinner, reduce the oxides (carbonates) and reduce the stiffness a bit as well. One interesting feature that I am sure I am about to ruin by altering the formula is that in the sunlight, the black is punctuated by silver dots where bits of sand or stone are underneath the glaze. You may think that a black glaze would be rather simple and easy but when you see something specific in your head it all gets a bit complicated; next firing, more testing     

"When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become in adequate, I shall be content with silence."  Ansel Adams                                 

KOI OR NETTLES

Illustrated is a medium size tsubo thrown out of an iron rich stoneware with several rather evocative iron glazes covering the surface which easily reminds one of the netted decoration of the matsuba-koi or the drooping nettles (or needles) of the pine tree, Pinus thunbergii, the Japanese black pine. What ever is the genesis of the decoration, this tsubo was made by Kimura Moriyasu and is just another wondrous iron surface mastered through decades of trial and error, experimentation with formulas and temperature ranges to perfect surfaces that are eye catching and at times other worldly in their appearance. Like most of Moriyasu's palette, this glaze is carefully applied, layering surfaces to create the perfect and desired effect which in this case is the Matsuba-Temmoku. As can be seen in this photo the surface takes on a wide range of hues and effects depending on the light source where it can present as areas of rich, rusty iron reds or almost metallic like areas of grey, silver and gun-metal with areas of distinct small crystals glistening all about the pot.  At times relying on his years at the Kyoto Ceramic research Center and his brothers, also all potters, Kimura Moriyasu has blazed a trail in pursuit of iron and yohen glazes capturing the cosmos frozen in time in his works, painting an extraordinary landscape in clay and glaze along the way.

WHAT'S IN A NAME

Quite a long time ago my wife and I were walking about up on Charles St. having come from Boylston and Newberry and a visit to what at the time was the Pucker-Safrai Gallery. On Charles we happened into a small shop and toward the back was a group of shiny, perfect almost magical small bowls and bottles by Miyamura Hideki who had apprenticed under yohen and yuteki specialist Miura Shurei before he left Japan for the US. We ended up buying a number of these small bowls and some other pieces but was struck that these 4" bowls were called teabowls by the proprietor which perhaps he meant for use in sencha as they are a bit on the small side for chanoyu. At any rate, they are perfectly thrown with a wonderful overall form and the glaze surfaces as you can see are just mesmerizing so the conclusion we came to is, what's in a name, simply put they are just wondrous little bowls however you should choose to employ them.   

"Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt."  Lao Tzu

OLD ORIBE SLIPWARE

Illustrated is another slipware pot that was made out of stoneware, slipped in black and then white slip and then had combed decoration added. I usually use this technique on terra cotta under a clear or amber colored glaze but decided to try out the "old Oribe slipware" idea and I have been pleased with the results thus far. This jar form is rather simple as is the lid and small attached and thrown knob making for as straight forward a canvas to work on where the decoration adds depth and movement around pot making it both practical and hopefully enjoyable to look at or display. As for the glaze itself, this surface is the most common Oribe style glaze that I am using currently and there is depth and a slight luster combined with a slight droozy blue-grey running down the pot. The conclusion that I have come to is that I like the earthy, rustic look using stoneware/ Oribe style glaze and think that there is a lot of room for experimentation and working within the tried and true using this surface and possibly an amber and burgandy surface as well. With any luck I'll get another group of tests in the kiln and figure out just what comes next in a cycle or two.

EIZO GOSU

I am more than aware that the end of deliberating, no one come close to the works of Kawai Kanjiro that studied under his roof. At one level it would be a disservice to the master to copy his works without adjusting the pieces to create one's own idiom and on the other hand, how do you copy perfection? As you look at Kawai's students, each of them have perfected some style or form that gets to the heart of the master's work even though it falls just short but among those, Mukunoki Eizo had a knack for creating gosu hakeme works that embrace the original sentiment and aesthetic while clearly being the work of the actual maker. This sturdy henko composed of ideal proportions has a power to its form and the surface has that an echo of the Kanjiro voice that made this thick brushed slip pieces so alive and animated.      

In the case of Mukunoki he has arrived on a rather solemn and stately form, a perfect blend of master and student raised on a slight pedestal foot and finished off with a delicate though purposeful neck and mouth offset in attitude from the square base. The slip is roughly applied and then finger swiped creating a vertical movement that compliments the vase and acts to trap and pool some of the rich, deep blue gosu that is added as the final gesture of creation prior to being fired. The contrast of dark to lighter hues adds an inviting narrative to the landscape of the geometric form while softening the angles and planes of the molded henko to create an organic appearance to the overall pot. There is a sense of history in this form which relies on ideas that are both ancient and modern, the slight curve and taper to the lines set up a dynamic that grabs the eye and the use of the opposing planes on neck and body further create a visual tension that makes the pot just spring to life.  Admittedly no one comes close the genius and mastery of Kawai Kanjiro but with students like (and not exclusive to) Mukunoki Eizo he has clearly reached  a higher bar and the Kawai traition is carried on and brought yet another generation into the future.

PRACTICED IMPROV

If you look at enough of the pottery by Kowari Tetsuya, especially his tokkuri, guinomi and chawan you can see elements of the scripted and unscripted formulas that go in to his work; the threads that links each pot yet allows for that interconnected jazz like improvisation to emerge. The animation and posture of this Haiyu-Shino wood fired tokkuri is written across the surface of this piece and is inescapable and quite palpable as if the piece is trying to make its way from point A to point B right in front of you, perhaps not perpetual motion but as close as possible in a static, plastic object. The tension of the form created by its dynamic posture and the visual weight of the piece is defined by areas of rough, rustic texture and smooth planes of vertical motion painted over in ash, iron, Shino and flame that presents alternative visions as you move round the pot. Through Kowari's deft execution of the thrown and vigorously manipulated clay his pot has been brought to life that is then given a fine surface composed of a scant handful of materials and just the right amount of fire to marry the idea and creation into a object that surpasses mere function, pleasing the emotional core of the viewer (or user).  With Kowari's works, I keep coming back to the concept of jazz, where it is the spirit and improvisation and those moments in between that drives the aesthetic which I clearly see painted vividly across the work of a potter working on what isn't readily obvious and pointing it out to us with each new work.

RAPUNZEL, RAPUNZEL

Illustrated is a pair of Rapunzel pots, a large wall bowl and a simple cottage style teapot both made of thrown terra cotta, various underglaze slips and a thin clear glaze. Each piece is decorated with a stylized Rapunzel nude and her flowing hair, vivid sunflowers and a dark, almost alien and distant  background of swirled purple clouds. Meant to be somewhat whimsical and obtuse in its portrayal it can be challenging fitting the decoration to the three dimensional form but it is also just another of problem solving with a pencil and brush in the hand. Like many fables and fairy tales and beyond the Brothers Grimm, there is a lot of hidden meaning and sub-text to these stories which is why over the years I have used a wide array of such myths, fables and stories to decorate my pots as it allows a greater degree of discovery beyond just the obvious. Lastly, I decided long ago to depict Rapunzel free and clear of her imprisonment, enjoying the sun and forest floor for a change, not usually how she is portrayed after all it is the 21st century.

TEASER

Today was an incredibly unusual and busy day so I am just posting up this quick teaser photo of a truly wonderful and large futamono, covered box by Ito Hokuto. The detail, technique, form and presence of his work just resonates with me and each encounter is an impactful and playful experience. His works are worth the look.

JUST THE RIGHT SPOT

As I look at the photo(s) of this wood fired jars, I am immediately reminded of the various Sueki jars I saw in various museums during the trips we made to Japan. This jar has that just fired look, fresh and spirited having survived the firing intact and with ash and hiiro painting the piece which has raised horizontal ridges and is further narrated by small feldspar and stones punctuating the surface. Beyond the Sueki look it is clear there are hints of Shimaoka Tatsuzo in this piece that was coil and thrown by Matsuzaki Ken in 2007 for an exhibition at the Keio Department Store in Shinjuku where this tsubo is illustrated in the accompanying catalogue. Forgoing glazing this pot, Matsuzaki choose to fire this in a strategic location in the kiln producing this haikaburi, shizen-yu effect like medieval jars of old though there is no escaping the various details that make this a modern tsubo. Perhaps the most defining detail of this jar is the proud and strong neck and mouth that finish the pot creating a rather strong appearance and presence, perfect for use or just out on display in just the right spot.

LEFT-OVERS

I took this impromptu picture to show off the left overs, not the food, rather the pots that have accumulated as extras from making sets and dinnerware commissions over the last couple of years. Where the dinner is ravioli, tomato and mozzarella salad and bread from our locally bakery, the pots are all made of thrown terra cotta, all black slipped, two low pasta bowls white slip trailing, to catch all bowls (omnibowls) also with white slip trailing and the bread bowl, actually a soup or pasta bowl is both carved and slip trailed with tama dots around the edge. I decided to take this picture simply because our dining experience, pottery-wise is rarely this cohesive and I thought best to get a photo as the next time this happens Halley's Comet could be coming around again.