FOURSOME

Illustrated is the foursome of covered jars that I made several weeks back. Ironically they came out of a bisque this morning and have now been glazed though I am unsured when they will be fired. I have two kiln loads of terra cotta pieces that have priority and am in the midst of glazing them and plan on loading the kiln this evening. The four stoneware jars have been glazed in Oribe, saffron iron and Ao+ along with a few temmoku and medieval green summer style teabowls. I have found that it is easier to glaze pots in smaller batches as I don't end up rushing and making mistakes as well as some bad decisions. I am hoping to get my stoneware and porcelain pieces glazed and fired sometime next week and will post up a few of the jars once fired provided they survive the whole adventure.

A perfect foursome;

FRAME JOB

I am sure that I am not alone in my love of a rather ubiquitous auction site that from time to time yields little treasures or more aptly put, object which collectors value more than the seller or fellow collectors. The illustrated little kogo is one such prize, a simple Ki-Seto kogo by Toyoba Seiya that is about as timeless and classic in form and function as they come reminding me of a wet, moss covered stepping stone leading one to a tea house or a small shrine well off the beaten path. Toyoba studied with Arakawa Toyozo which is rather apparent looking at this kogo with a glaze that is wet in appearance and has a depth that still allows the clay to speak which is highlighted by the dark, rich crinkled texture that frames the top of the piece. Having learned well from his master, Toyoba tends to create pots that are in no way fussy or contrived, most have a certain simplicity to the lines and concept of the form with glazes that compliment the pots to near perfection. Perhaps the one characteristic of this kogo that I enjoy beyond the form and feudal surface is the casual way both clay and glaze was handled with a single fingerprint to both punctuate the overall presentation of the piece but to also act as an ad-hoc marker to instruct the viewer/user how and where the halves line up. Does it get any more extemporaneous than this?

OUT OF THE GROUND

Anyone that has been to the studio of Tsujimura Shiro is probably most shocked at the sheer number of pots stacked up on the ground about his property, from large tsubo to tokkuri and guinomi with every imaginable pot in between. Such was the case for this mizusashi, half buried in earth and grass and with the lid still stuck on the piece from the firing, a collector decided on this pot for his purchase as the color and form of the lid, mouth and lugs called out, "I am the one". Once retreived and clean, the medieval, rustic attributes of the Iga water jar were on full display exuding a strength and fundamental qualities of an ideal Tsujimura pot. The pot was well wrapped though without a box which would have taken two weeks to provide, but the new owner was more than pleased with his pottery and the experience where his new pot was taken from the ground as was the original material, dug and processed out of the earth to become a pot guided by the hands of Tsujimura Shiro.

EYE LEVEL

Though I have a large table adjacent to my wheel to work on, I always seem to migrate to the wheel to do an handbuilding, altering, assembly, etc. When I am handbuilding, I have a old piece of Formica that I place over my splash guard to act as a work station and in the case of attaching knobs, handles or lugs as well as carving, I put a banding wheel on top of the wheel head and get to work. In this particular case, I needed to get the pot closer to eye level so once the bands were carved on the spinning wheel head I set about building a totem that gets me as close to the pot as possible for both the right angle and attitude of carving but for the right lighting and field of vision as well. Behind my wheel I have a clip on lamp with a 100watt bulb that helps illuminate the workspace and I must admit, after making pots for so long, I just feel comfortable and perhaps a bit more at home on the wheel as I do anywhere else in the studio.

HOW SWEET IT IS

This particular guinomi is one of those small gems that make it easy to understand not only the love of saké but of guinomi, salt firing, wood firing and the work of Ningen Kokuho, Shimaoka Tatsuzo. Though diminutive in scale, the is nothing small in the execution, design and firing of this guinomi having all of the bells and whistles a viewer or collector would want from the potter. From form, purposeful and well cut foot, impressed rope decoration and a mixed, misty infusion of cobalt from the salt and ash from the wood firing, everything comes together to paint a portrait of a perfect Shimaoka piece. All that is left is to get out a truly wonderful bottle of bourbon (or saké) and revel in "how sweet it is".

A+

Over the years I have received and shipped a number of packages, far too many to count or even remember at this point but ever now and again a package arrives and it is the packing as much as the contents that is quite memorable. The picture shows just why the packing struck a cord; the teabowl was exceptionally well packed within and without of the wood box and then using boxes that were certainly on the large size for the small tabi-chawan, each was perfectly packed with peanuts full to the top so that everything was as tight as could be. When I received the pristine package I knew immediately the packing was undertaken with absolute consideration that the pot would arrive intact even if dropped out of a plane at 30,000 feet. Because of the appearance of the box I knew to document the unpacking and left the package just as you see it so that I would have a record of a packing job that merits an A+ if not higher. Though I might not use boxes quite as big to cut down on the expense, there is a new standard. I thought I would mention, the tabi-chawan is by Koyama Naohiko and having had the chance to handle it for a couple of days I will put together a video slideshow of the pot in the near future.

(I apologize if it seems like I am a bit too excited about packing but over the 30+ years of collecting the number of damaged pieces I have received or have heard about makes really sound packing almost as important as the pottery itself.)

STEP ONE

I am not sure where I got infected but somehow I got this bug to throw a group of covered jars where the flange is in the bottom half of the pot. Pictured are the parts for two of the four tops/bottoms that I threw; pots that will be slipped, carved and one for the sunset and leaves design and the last one will be thick combed slip and all four will have various ring knobs or thick slab handles applied. This particular group is of smaller covered jars that will fit between larger bowls allowing them to fit in various spaces acting as filler and I suspect I will use the iron yellow, Ao+ and Oribe glazes to finish them. Step one was obviously throwing them and tomorrow I will tool, assemble and slip them and if they firm up enough, carve them in the evening. I'll post a few photos of the pieces in their green state and again once they are glaze fired which at this moment seems like a long, long way off.

T'ZU CHOU

Our first contact with the work of Ochiai Miyoko (b.1946), who lives and works outside of Kyoto in Shiga-ken was back in 1983 through the JAPANESE CERAMIC TODAY exhibition. In the exhibition was a small T'zu Chou style tsubo with a lively black fish, detailed with sgraffito on a nearly pure white background, the piece and effect was quite elegant with an aire of nobility thrown in for good measure. Over the years we saw her work here and there including several pieces on our trips to Japan in the 1990s but it wasn't until we first hopped on the internet super-highway that we found our first Ochiai that was for sale; in fact one of our very first purchases, a T'zu Chou floral vase over the pc was with Robert Yellin back in the late 90s.

Flash forward to the present day and we recently stumbled on to a rather attractive Ochiai bud vase with the very same decoration as was on the Kikuchi tsubo in the 1983 exhibition. Standing about six inches tall this ko-tsubo has a rather graphic sense to the decoration and the pot is both delicate and well thrown with a small, raised foot. I took a number of photos of the piece and built this short video slideshow to try to capture the volume and presence of the pot, hopefully the video will paint a fuller picture.

CAMELLIA MIZUSASHI

At first glance, I am reminded of the earlier works of the late Mashiko Ningen Kokuho, Tamura Koichi as well as another potter many thousands of miles away, John Glick but as you study this pot, the image there are tell tale signs that it was the ex-salary man turned potter Takauchi Shugo that made this inspired mizusashi. If you start by looking past the surface, the form is somewhat similar to those used by Takauchi early in his career along with those of angled planes creating unique and interesting pottery that was either simply glazed and reduction fired or at times salt and wood fired. Once you turn your attention to the surface the use of slips, oxides, carving and sgrafitto are all classic techniques that Shugo has employed through his entire career as an innovative potter; his use of space and movement through design is a particular hallmark. To finish off the pot, Takauchi Shugo has used a hexagonal, recessed lid that fits the piece quite well and the stylized animal knob is seen on a number of his earlier thrown and hand built pots that have lids. Though I can still see the influence of Tamura Koichi's camellia blossom tsubo which was made in the very late 1960's, how can a potter not be influenced by one of the giant's of Mashiko while remaining true to his personal vision and vocabulary.

AND THEN THERE WAS ONE

Though my wife and I use pottery by a number of potters, there are left-over pieces from commissions that I have made that we use for most our meals, some dating back to when we lived in Cleveland. As I would make commissions, I would make extras to ensure that the order was filled with "perfect" pieces and the left overs ended up in our cabinets for use.  Due to a number of moves, mishaps, crazy cats (both Jun and now Khan), we have lost several pieces over the years where sets became pairs and sometimes lone survivors. Though I was done throwing for this current cycle; a slight mishap took the life of a well-used salad bowl and where there was once four, now there is only one remaining. One of the advantages and perks of being a potter is that when you need something, either new or a replacement, you can just go to the studio and get them made. Before working on a variety of other tasks today and now putting off my last bisque just a bit; I sat down and threw four terra cotta salad bowls that will either be black slipped and carved or slip trailed, not sure which way to go at the moment though I did make up some fresh black and white slips if that is the way I, I mean Mindy decides I should go. At any rate, we should soon have at least a new pair for us to use and I am always reminded of the Three Stooges in spirit if not in actuality; "you break'em, we'll make'em and bake'em".