Way back when, at a time when clay, chemicals and energy
were much cheaper, I would take and write a number of pottery styles on little
slips of paper and then pick two out blindly. In one case I ended up picked “Greek
kylix” and “renaissance majolica”, what I decided on was the body of an apothecary
jar and the pedestal of the kylix and plus or minus, this is what I had come up
with. Considering this was likely two decades ago, there are no photos of my
previous crimes against pottery so last fall I started making a few of the
pieces perched atop pedestals to see what I could end up with. This Oribe covered jar is one of the pieces
I ended up making, made of stoneware out of two pieces, well three if you
include the lid, the surface has an impasto decoration, moving around the
surface at a diagonal in two bands around the form. Once bisque, I used my Kuro-Oribe
glaze and well, the rest is pretty self-evident. Two traditions blended
together to create this horizontal, raised covered pot, a little bit of Greece,
a bit of Italia with a pinch of Japanese pottery and a momentary lapse of
reason coalesced with the aid of some clay and heat.
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