WHITE OUT

We have had our share of weather here for the past two weeks being on the fringe of the three seperate Nor'easters that have hit this region but today the sun is out creating a virtual white out as the treees, ground and building are covered in snow and the drips of the melt can be seen and heard every where. The mood as you look out the windows made me think back on a wonderous Miwa Kyusetsu Hagi chawan owned by a friend of mine. It is broad, generous and full of spirit as it creates its own visual white out as you survey the form with hints of the rich daido clay peaking through crawling in the glaze and at the foot where the glaze is either thinning or non-existent. I really like this chawan, though large it is not as large as some of Kyusetsu's (Jyusetsu) later more sculptural and statement oriented pieces, the crawling is just the right amount of activity to activate and animate the surface and the posture of the chawan, foot and lip all present a form directed by purpose and a particular aesthetic. Thanks to the  intimate scale of this chawan, I can't help but see a snow covered universe held firmly in one's hands.

TO THE TEST

Over the past couple of years or so I have emailing back and forth with a collector living in Japan discussing Kumano, every day using pots and also Fujioka Shuhei. He recently sent me this photo of a very well fired Iga tokkuri and guinomi by Fujioka that both culminate in wonderful areas of glaze runs and bidoro drips in which his firing technique seem to defy logic. Though both are classical Fujioka pots and composed of a compressed and compact spirit, they have slightly restrained forms compared to some of his most recent work which is high lighted by areas of large facets and angular cuts about the surface, these appear more comfortable to the hand and lip. This set just exudes a  welcoming sense of function and it is easy to imagine using these pieces especially during the height of summer where the cool appearance coupled with a nice cold sake compliment each other and put the duo to the test.

"Pure logic is the ruin of the spirit." Saint-Exupery
 

STRETCHED OUT BLUES

A few weeks back I posted up a greenware teabowl made out of a new test clay. Up to that point and through the bisque, the clay seemed to hold up quite well and illustrated is the finished product. Now I will certainly admit, this is an odd teabowl and probably more than a bit tricky to use, but in terms of how the clay responded along the way, I have absolutely no complaints. I took a number of photos of the piece at each stage of the process to track the amount of variance caused by warping and loss of shape overall and have been very surprised that from greenware to finished piece there was no warping and the form stayed just as it was made other than the  normal and expected shrinkage. So the finished teabowl was glazed in the Ao+ which shows off the slip and areas of clay where the body was exposed during the combing. I guess I can't complain hitting on a new clay body to use with very few tests and zero failures along the way, now on to larger pots!

DIOSPYROS KAKI

Back in 1985 there was a rather wonderful exhibition of the pottery of Imai Masayuki at the PEABODY MUSEUM of SALEM which showcased the broad variety of his work from zogan inlay pieces, underglaze painted wares and even Jun style pottery. Despite the variety, there is a thread which binds his works together including the painted pieces which give a different face to his somewhat graphic style. The underglaze pieces were painted with cobalt, iron and other oxides before having a soft, white glaze or Shino put over them creating design and decoration quite separate from the precision of his inlaid, wood fired pots. Illustrated is such a pot where he has first incised a design and then added colored washes of cobalt and iron to accentuate the persimmon, the "divine fruit" design created on the mizusashi. The vivid decoration livens up the simple form and soft white surface making for a pot that is enjoyable to have a nice, long conversation with, perhaps over a cup of tea.

MADARA-KARATSU

I don't know a lot about the maker of this mizusashi, but according to his bio, Kojima Yoshiaki specializes in Karatsu pottery of which this piece is a very nice example. Thrown and then furrowed, this pot is covered in a very nice Madara-Karatsu glaze with accnets of iron on the face, the overall surface has a wide array of colors, tones and a sheen that gives the piece a rather serene appearance. The foot is just wonderfully dealt with with a crinkly surface, great shell-wad marks and glaze running toward the bottom of the piece. There is a very similar example in the book; MODERN JAPANESE CERAMICS on page 75, no. 54 though I think this example is just as fine as the one illustrated. All in all this is a rather classic example of Madara-Karatsu pottery and a great piece of contemporary chadogu.

You can see more photos of this mizusashi on my Trocadero page:

https://www.trocadero.com/stores/albedo3studio/items/1375914/MADARA-KARATSU-MIZUSASHI-BY-KOJIMA-YOSHIAKI

B&A II

A couple of firings ago, I made a series of small slipped and combed covered jars in amber, Oribe and Ao+ glazes and when seaching for some photos I noticed I had a before and after photo of the same jar showing it from a nearly identical perspective so I decided to post it up. The before photo shows the jar having been slipped, combed and only recently carved on the shoulder and lid and the after photo is rather self-explanitory. These jars were quickly slipped and combed and the carving was also done rather quickly trying to give the piece a rather casual and natural feel and then once glazed, the Ao+ filled in all the nooks and crannies creating a nice contrasting depth of color to the overall appearance. I like making covered pots, it allows me to fit together two seperate pieces as well as wondering what will this jar or the others from the series will be used for?

TANPAN

Arguably one of the finest Ki-Seto potters of the 20th century, Kagami Shukai (1941-2009) created this little gem of a chaire in his thoughful and classical style. This simple form with natural throwing marks and taunt shoulder is covered in Kagami's unique Ki-Seto glaze with tanpan (tanban, tampan), copper splashes on the on the face and back  and a slight amount of koge, scorching around the bottom third of the piece making this an ideal and crucial part of the tea ceremony. Though seemingly simple in its creation, this chaire is the pinnacle of the art and the result of years of practice and in depth research not only honing his craft but also understanding the historical glaze and forms he pursued; in fact his research into Mino pottery extended to archeological digs and kiln and shard excavations to further his knowledge of the history, clay, glazes and manufacture of Shino, Oribe, Seto-Guro and Ki-Seto in the region. There is little else I can actually say about this wonderful little pot other than stating the obvious, big things do come in small packages and in this case it also packs a tremendous punch on nearly every level.

THE OLD STYLE

This jpeg is another image I have had on my computer for quite some time and every time I look at it, it feels as if I am looking back in time. Made by Nakagawa Jinenbo (1953-2011), this Karatsu style kohiki mizusashi looks like it was made much earlier then in actuallity being a product of the Heisei era. The casual faceted form has a timeless, weathered, cracked surface that appears much more feudal than modern and shows a great dedication to Ko-Karatsu which Nakagawa specialized in making pots in a wide variety of the old styles using traditional methods, clays, glazes and kiln firing. I have seen a wide array of pottery by Nakagawa in Japan and over the years and I am particularly draw to his kohiki style which shows such inspired subtlties and are the epitome of casual in their creation. It is a great tragedy that such a gifted potter left at such an early age, one can only wonder what great pots he would have left behind beyond those already made and fired in his unique and old style way.

STRETCHED OUT

For a while now I have been making up my own higher iron clay body which throws rather well and looks nice when fired but I began to discover that it has its limitations in regards to man-handling it. The more I push, shove, fold and alter, the more it was just not happy with the process so I set about altering the formula a bit and here is the latest incarnation. I will start off by saying that there is not a lot of large particles in the mix and I don't use grog, but this test seems to respond well to be folded, altered, pushed, pulled and stretched out. The illustrated bowl was thrown round with a slight waist and then it was folded up to an oval form and then I carefully stretched out the clay above and below the waist to create a bowl almost twice as wide as it was when it was thrown. As you can see, once tooled I applied a thick slip that I combed above and below the waist and am now keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't collapse before it dries enough to be stable. Provided it makes it through the bisque and glaze firing, I will post up the finished piece and conclude the newest clay body will allow me more latitude when working with it, after all, a potter has to know his clay's limitations.

A BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP

I recently received an email asking if I could show an overall photo of the large Matsuzaki Ken Shino tsubo that I posted in a post entittled; PERSPECTIVE. When possible, I try to be accomidating and since I took a large number of photos of this piece and have not built a slideshow video of the pot, this photo will have to suffice for the time being. As I pointed out in the original post, I was just not prepared for the actual scale and volume of the piece as it is quite large and certainly commands the space it is in and that is around it as well, a pot like this is a lot like a beautiful friendship. Along with the sheer presence of it being a large pot, the form is sturdy and solid with a surface that has just about everything you can imagine from the thick whipped cream like Shino, subtle iridescence here and there, rich yohen and ash coating the pot forming areas of beautiful glass across the piece. I have to admit, it was an impressive piece and spent way to short a time here but none the less it has left an indelible mark on my mind's eye and will be hard to forget as time goes by*.

(*Sorry, I couldn't resist, not one but two CASABLANCA references. How often do you see that in a pottery blog post?)