Wednesday, February 12, 2025

ELEMENTS

I really enjoy making covered pots, especially easy to use, not too large, not to small pieces of which I think this pot is a classic example of. This is from a series exploring a form that blends my old “whirling dervish” pots with an exaggerated bamboo node association. The thick combed slip has the look of sudare, bamboo blinds while at the same time could be seen as a dense bamboo grove swaying in the wind finished off in my Kuro-Oribe surface from top to bottom.    

Beyond the form, this pot is about the movement of the glaze partially created by the thick combed slip, moving diagonally while creating dark pools of green to black on the highpoints and transition lines which is clearly highlighted by the sun in the second picture. There is nothing earth-shattering about this form, the scale or even the surface but I would like to think when you assemble all the elements it is certainly a bit better than any single detail and as a potter, I think that is the best I can ask for.