GLAZE DAZE

Today is that day, an essential part of making pottery without actually making pottery, this Monday was glaze day. I spent some spare moments over the weekend making a plan for Monday which involved making up 4 glazes as well as a glaze base for a number of tests I plan on running in the next firing and what you see is for the testing phase. I made the glazes in half batches to top off my temmoku, Oribe, clear and iron glazes while I wait on some pots to finish drying to decorate some and bisque the group together with several thousand grams of material that needs to be calcined at cone 06. With the music playing DEAD CAN DANCE I am sometimes reminded of making glazes at other times and places, like back at Plattsburgh State just a week into making pots, at Cleveland State where Dick would ask "what now? " at Haystack and various other co-ops over the years all leaving me in a bit of a glaze daze. Making glazes is not exactly making pots but where would I be without them? I suspect in some other fringe pursuit though I am not sure it would be quite as satisfying at the end of the day as making pots and the glazes to best suit them.

MINUTIAE MATINEE

I have been playing around with my wife's "smart" phone recently and have tried my hand at making very short videos that I also posted up on Instagram. These aren't great videos but I thought they may give some additional perspective in to various pots that I have handled. These two videos are of a shark-skin Shino glazed Tokoname guinomi by Kato Yoshiaki and a rather crusty, almost Oni-Shino style wood fired Shino chawan by Kido Sadaaki. Not much else to say other than any and all constructive criticism and input is always welcome.

ADVENTURES OF AN ACCIDENTAL COLLECTOR

I keep saying that when it comes to guinomi (and tokkuri) I am basically an accidental collector but I guess if you are shown something or find something and then collect it, that's not exactly accidental. It is not exactly like I went out on a mid-afternoons walk and just stumbled across a guinomi lying in the grass, picked it up, put it in my pocket and brought it home to add to the collection of guinomi. There is purpose and intent behind the purchase but I will say in the defense of my characterization that it is exceedingly rare that I wake up and think to myself, "today I want to buy a guinomi", on the other hand, a chawan more than likely fits that thought process but a sake cup just not that likely. That being said , recently I was shown a rather nice guinomi that even the chawan collector in me said, we really should own that little cup.   

Illustrated is an overall impromptu picture of a Kumano Kuroemon Kuma-Shino guinomi that I posted up the interior of a short while back. Though only a guinomi as with most Kumano pieces this is a handful with a surface to match its size and energy with areas of thick, fractured Shino mingling with unglazed and ash coated areas painting a narrative that only "the Bear" could. Perhaps my favorite feature of this piece is the meandering lip which reminds me of rolling hills, a landscape that I just haven't seen before but am glad to have visited.

ON THE TRAIL

When I first started in ceramics even though I didn't think it was a long term thing, my first group of pots were all just dip and dunk pieces even those with recipes culled from various sources as tests Chinese or Japanese glazes. After each firing Bill Klock could see the disappointment I had in my pieces and he suggested that I actually try my hand at some form of decoration. As I scanned around at what other students were doing from painted designs to heavily carved surfaces these just didn't seem right for me and then while looking for some new tools in the discarded tools bucket I found this magical little blue bulb, an ear syringe and off I went to "decorate" or more likely muck up my pieces. Since I loved the works of Arp and Miro, I tried my best to work out abstract, lyrical designs heavily influenced by those two and have stuck with the whole concept of slip and glaze trailing ever since. The illustrated stoneware teabowl was first white slipped and then had a dark, black slip trailed over in what may appear to be a random, abstract decoration which is based on designs I have used for a very long time. The small group of bowls that I decorated in this manner will be glazed in my saffron yellow which will temper the black a bit though it will show nicely through the surface and add not only design but a bit of texture as well.

WHERE NOW?

Though it may not be Kilimanjaro, The Coliseum or perhaps the Parthenon, these fire and clay landscapes are composed of both wild and subtle beauty ranging from the serene to the chaotic. With each and every piece that I encounter by Kojima Kenji, I see these wide array of landscapes, keshiki that range from experiences and memories of my personal encounters to images, photographs (and video) that I have seen that connect me from place to pot and this chawan is no different. Reminding me of the tail end of winter where ice gives way back to rock face among the majesty of the Adirondacks I think back on the very last snowshoeing treks through  the wilderness where thick ice has made its home on rock and stone at every turn. 

As you can see in this photo, this is a strong, determined bowl with just the right amount of manipulation of the pot to bring attention to the lift of the piece, the shadow line, the posture and the casualness of the lip. The face of the chawan is covered in a translucent coating of natural green ash that gives way to the wet, fumed area of rich brown that concludes in hi-iro on the rear. When you put all of the individual details together, there is a seductive quality to the chawan that is certainly further enriched by its ability to transport you to a different place and a different time with little more than a small amount of clay and the masterful brushwork of a fierce and rather convincing firing.

HONEST PRACTICALITY

In past blog posts I have shown the kodai and interior detail of this shark-skin (Same-gawa) Shino chawan by the late Kato Yoshiaki (1934-2019). I thought it was about time to show an overall image especially as I have be very delinquent in putting together a slideshow video of the chawan. As you can see from this photo, this chawan is really a visual and tactile exercise in texture with varying node sizes of the Shino creating vivid  semi-abstract pattern, the largest of which wrap around the bowl creating an animated feel. I think it is easy to admit this is no masterpiece chawan but thehonest practicality, the function and the sum of its parts make for a chawan that has both spirit and quality that appeals to the eye and the interesting experience one has with the pot in hand and truth be told, not every masterwork can say the same.   

This chawan was photographed on my desk corner as the light of the day was just about to yield to dusk which created this slightly more complex visage of what is actually going on with the glaze. The entire surface, inside and out and into the myriad of crevices is covered in a slight sheen of wetness caused by ash melting on the surface giving the bowl a truly antique, feudal feel without obscuring any of the detail created by the glazes of varying thicknesses contracting about the surface. The form of the bowl is rather simple, with an approachable lip and a practically cut foot and a simple glaze that all add up to a exercise in structure, texture and ultimately character adding a new dimension to the classical definition of what we think of as Tokoname-yaki.   

"I search for the realness, the real feeling of a subject, all the texture around it.... I always want to see the third dimension of something... I want to come alive with the object."    Andrew Wyeth

THE FACETED ONE

This Oribe style faceted teabowl came out of the kiln a short while ago, the first I had made in a couple of months (?) and as I was unloading the kiln I was particularly piqued by the fact that this bowl, the faceted one was in a kiln load of nothing but round stuff. I am not saying there is anything wrong with round pots, they seem to have set the standard for several millennium but now and again something not like everything else does in fact catch the eye. If memory serves me, this teabowl was thrown out of what was left of throwing lids off the hump and seemed just about the right amount of clay for the task and once faceted, tooled and fired is just the right weight for a bowl of its size which as always is on the larger side. I was pleased by the way the glaze worked and also of the posture of the bowl which appears to all be moving stage left in this photo. One of the realities of making these faceted bowls is that you can't really be 100% sure of what you will end up with, some disappoint and are wedged up, some are good and others seem to work straight across the board, I would like to think that this one off does exactly that.

YESTERDAY IS TOMORROW

I think this is about as classic a modern Madara-Karatsu chawan as you may encounter. Made by Fujinoki Dohei (b.1949) the archetypical form is well matched by the surface with a dark, iron undeglaze and the creaming, cascading qualities of the streaked tan overglaze that covers the interior and runs down the exterior terminating just prior to the foot and possible disaster. Though I may be prejudice, I think this bowl has that 17th century feel which most Karatsu potters strive for while keeping an eye toward the future realizing that yesterday is tomorrow. I put together this short video slideshow to give a three dimensional sense to the form and surface and hope it doesn't fall short from that goal.     

"Today instead of just carrying on the traditions set by olden makers, we are also eager to improve and make our own designs, thus continuing the old customs and traditions with a modern touch. " Nishikawa Ikko as recorded in the book, KARATSU  by Johanna Becker, O.S.B.

TWICE ENCOUNTERED

I first encountered this chawan quite a few years back, perhaps the very early 90s at the home of Dr. Fred Baekeland where it was part of about 20 pieces that he had pulled out for us to look at and possibly buy. Since Shino was one of our first true loves, when we left we ended up with a slide and Polaroid of the chawan and thought about it on and off for some time but never seemed to be at the right place and time to acquire it. Fast forward to the burgeoning age of the internet and a  second chance encounter with the very same chawan almost a decade later and astronomically less expensive, needless to say that we purchased it. I should say that Dr. Baekeland's original stamp of approval certainly helped and what we knew at the time that it was purchased out of an exhibition in Gifu the same year that we say it so it really didn't take a lot of convincing to bid.

Made by Mino traditional potter, Kawai Takehiko (b.1940) this chawan is a simple exercise in putting together a Momoyama ideal with a fresh and honest dose of a potter's vision where the straight sided form is interrupted by vivid and animated throwing lines that is a perfect foil for its glaze texture and coloration.  Though not a chawan you may classify as adventurous or necessarily breaking from tradition, this bowl has that sense of being a distillation of all the invaluable and difficult work of the 20th century pioneers that brought Shino back to its rightful place in the hierarchy of chadogu and modern pottery in general. Big, bold, practical and functional best describe this chawan in hand where despite its simplicity or perhaps because of it, this piece sits well in the hand and with the eye, it is so pleasing because it doesn't try too hard and gets all the fundamentals just about right and I think that is about all you can ask for out of two pounds of clay, a few ounces of glaze materials and a few thousand degrees of temperature.

THE BRIGHT SIDE(?)

This was another day with a late start for a variety of reasons but I did get to the studio and better late than never. After throwing some covered serving bowls and a few vase forms I turned my attention to a group of pitchers which was intended for three and three only. The first three were basically straight sided jugs with slightly flared feet and mouths which went well and I decided to make one more pitcher and went with a slightly different form as you can see in the photo. Thrown in about 4.5 lbs of stoneware the pitcher is under 14" tall with a bit of curve to the belly and a mouth flares out just a bit. Once I was done with this jug, I took turns pulling out the clay and making a spout for each piece, once they dry a bit I will take my sponge and soften the edges all around to get a more satisfying and clean look that will also be less likely to chip off after the pot is glaze fired. The final step will be to tool the foot and then pull a handle off the pot. I got another slow start but better to get something done than sit around and think about what I need to get done. I am told by someone who knows a lot more than me that this is looking on the bright side of life.