AN INVITATION TO TEA

A long while back I wrote about an early 17th century Shigaraki chawan that belongs to the Cleveland Museum of Art and recently I found a photo of a chawan that though rather modern, has many of the same attributes of the original from form, posture and overall presence. This chawan is by Furutani Michio, made in the 1990s and has the very same attitude as if extending an invitation to tea. This is a simple bowl, high sided with casual but not overly emphasized throwing marks with a slight flair as the bowl progresses to the lip. I imagine it is a rather tactile bowl with the areas of peppered ash creating a familiar and active sensation. Though these two bowls were created centuries apart, it is obvious the Furutani Michio considered the exact same functional and aesthetic sensibilities as the 17th potter; how does the chawan feel in the hand, considering the weight, circumference, the lip, the tea pool and the appearance; basically, how do you make a chawan that appeals to all of the senses. Though if you were to put the CMA chawan and this one by Furutani Michio side by side, there are obvious differences but it is the similarities that ties the old to the new and after all, that is the best that a potter steeped in tradition can ever hope to do.

GAMA-YOHEN

This chawan showed up the other day and I took a group of photos and made this slideshow video to show off the surface which is a bit unusual. Made by a classic Showa potter, Ichikawa Kodo, this gama-yohen chawan shows a wide variety of textures and colors with wonderful iridescence and copper flashes across the bowl. I don't know a lot about the potter other than he specialized in this gama-yohen as well as Shino and Oribe pottery. I think what makes this bowl appealing is the unique surface, pratical size and form and its dedication to function, I hope the video gives off that sense as well.

You can see more of this chawan over on my Trocadero marketplace;
https://www.trocadero.com/stores/albedo3studio/items/1374753/GAMA-YOHEN-CHAWAN-BY-ICHIKAWA-KODO

GOLDEN BROWN

I was throwing a couple weeks back and had some extra clay left over from throwing off the hump so I threw a couple of high sided teabowls. Once thrown, the question was what to do with them and since I had some black and white slips looking me in the face, I decided to make two quick mishima style inlay pieces. This one was carved with a real uneven herringbone style texture and then had white and black slip inlaid before it was carved off, the other one was done in just white slip inlay. I used my saffron style glaze over this piece and then added a wash of iron to deepen the color to a rich,golden brown. The other bowl was glazed in Oribe and though the inlay is a bit harder to see, it makes still makes for an interesting texture.

AFFINITY AND BEYOND

I posted a shadowy shot of this Bizen vase a while back and finally got around to putting together a slideshow video of it. Made by Masamune Satoru, this exhibition vase (the video ends with the exhibition postcard) is as casual as they come, slightly altered with spatula work and cuts here and there, the lugs animate the piece while the varying firing effects, fire color and tsuchi-aji clothing the form. I have mentioned this before but for some reason I am drawn to Masamune's way of handling clay and creating form, his pots seem to fit every nook and cranny, house or apartment and look quite nice in use. I hope the video conveys a bit of why I admire his pottery and the affinity I have for it, enjoy.

SNOW

I used this illustration of this wonderful Shimizu Uichi mizusashi a while back on my blog but given the current weather here, thought it rather apropos to use again. This time I am showing off the rear of the pot where a large kanji for the word snow is "painted" through the viscous white glaze right down to the dark, rich black iron glaze underneath. Though I can't see any black of our driveway pavement through the thick blanket of snow here, this pot reminded me of the current situation developing outside possibly with the glimmer of hope that like the surface of the mizusashi, perhaps the snow will begin to melt in the near future giving way to an actual driveway and even grass. One can hope.

YOU KNOW ME, RIGHT?

I like making usable, functional pots. Aside from my original inclinations, working along side three Leach pupils helped solidify exactly what that means and though I go off script from time to time, as both collector and potter, function is what interests me the most.  This small stoneware yunomi is a fair example, though intended for beverages, it can accomidate a number of useful applications from spirits to any snacks and just about anything in between. The throwing is rather straight forward with incised lines around the form creating a hint of quilting. The impressed marks around the cup makes it just a bit more tactile and activate the surface as well as trapping some of the running ash glaze creating a translucency that hints at the clay beneath. The combination of the ash glaze over temmoku is a good, sturdy surface that should hold up to day to day use for quite a long while and in it the user gets to see new things daily carrying on  a nice conversation between cup, tea and user.

WIND IN THE WILLOWS

When you conjour up an image of pottery by Tomimoto Kenkichi, you can see the majestic and intricated painted porcelains he is so well known for but there is another side to his work that rarely gets the attention it deserves. The work I am talking about is the ink painting inspired pottery made as slipware, stoneware and painted porcelains that he concentrated on early in his career depicted all types of flora, fauna, landscapes and pattern some of which has connections to the Mingei movement, The Arts and Crafts Movement, various folk potteries, older Kutani and even Momoyama inspired ink painting. Though I love his inticate painted porcelains, I love his more spontaneous and subdued works on pottery and in ink and water colors as well. This vivid ink and wash scroll painting brings you to the exact spot of the image, feeling the wind in the willows, hearing the rustling of the blowing branches and leaves. It is wonderful how using just the right amount of brush strokes and the right depth of color can stir the imagination and set the mind in to motion; unquestionably the skill of a gifted artist.

SHARED PSYCHOSIS

There is just something so intoxicating about a good wood fired pot. Over the years I have tried to put my finger on exactly why they are so appealing but as I ask the question an exact reason still escapes me. There is something so elemental, primal and honest about the process of shaping clay and placing it within a kiln and then unleashing a premordial energy and ferocity into the mix which despite a potters best intention and skill does what ever the heck it wants. The truth is that every firing is different than the previous for a variety of reasons from how packed the kiln is, placement of pots, stoking, external temperature, barametric pressure and any other variable that can create great pieces or doom a firing. The illustrated bowl shows off the potential of a well placed bowl in a woodkiln and the mastery of a potter who knows how to exploit his clay, process and firing. Made by Shimaoka Tatsuzo this wonderful bowl shows off his skillful zogan technique together with a rich  rusty purple fire color and a face covered in running ash where the piece confronted the fire, head on. I may not have figured out exactly where the love of such pots stems from deep in my psyche but I take solace in knowing that I am not alone.

MONDAY

An internet friend of mine who has recently retired, or should I say, semi-retired has started making pottery again after a long career in a field not exactly related to pottery. We have been discussing him setting up a studio, materials and clays needed and what and how he would fire for some time now and he just sent a photo of some of his "new" work. I should take a moment to mention the Jim was a pottery a while back and "followed his bliss" to another profession and has wanted back in to the mud since we first started emailing back and forth a number of years ago. The upshot to our recent emails and photo exchange is how lucky I am that come Monday morning, I am back in the studio making pots, today working in stoneware where I need to get some bowls and several covered jars and lids thrown today. Added to this privilege is that fact that all I need to do is walk down a flight of stairs and through a door and I am right in my studio where I have 24/7/365 access and only occasionally is it too cold or too hot to work in. I can't deny, this makes Mondays a welcome sight.

Neil Diamond; MONDAY, MONDAY

RED, WHITE & BLUE (AND SOME GOLD) II

Illustrated is a large pure white porcelain tsubo with vivid areas of undeglaze blue and overglaze red and gold over a fine transparent clear glaze. Fine detail is added to the grapes and leaves using sgrafitto through the overglazes creating this fine Kyoto tsubo by Kondo Hiroshi. Kondo Hiroshi (b.1936), son of NIngen Kokuho,Kondo Yuzo and younger brother of Kondo Yutaka, focused on his father's patented style of sometsuke ware of which this piece is a wonderful example. Spending his life dedicated to this technique, Hiroshi create unique works influenced by his father and Tomimoto Kenkichi while carving out a style that can be seen as his own. Besides being a full time potter, Kondo Hiroshi went on to teach and even ended up teaching at several colleges/ universities in 1968 and again in 2006, he also went on to win the prestigious "Tomimoto Prize" in 1973. Just like the work of his father, Kondo Hiroshi uses his stoic, pure white porcelain forms as canvas that he adorns in a spontaneous and fluid design that captures the essence of not only sometsuke but also the heart and soul of Japanese sumi-e style painting and Kyo-yaki of a modern age.