ALL RISE

After writing my Monday post, I went and visited a group of Bill Klock teabowls that I have on a shelf, reminding myself about just how powerful and present simplicity can be. This illustrated Shino bowl is a classic piece by Bill, simple in its approach, form and glazing but the manner in which it was thrown, the use of subtle marks around the piece with a rough, folded over lip adding strength and focus to the pot all terminating in a powerful lift on a quickly cut pedestal foot quite frankly what clay was originally intended for. I should also mention that he really enjoyed using Shino thin where the fiery iron reds would come up bolstered by the spodumene in the glaze and allowing marks, impressed and inlaid stamps and other elements of the clay to show through the surface.

As for the initial ascent which begins as the clay meets table it is clearly about visual elevation, the bowl has the lift that I really love in a pot and for clay which blends function and aesthetics, this teabowl just says, "all rise" to my eye.

" I thought clay must feel happy in the good potter's hand." Janet Fitch (from WHITE OLEANDER)

PEDESTAL

I remember the first time that I met Bill Klock, it was the week before Thanksgiving and what seems a lifetime ago. Our first conversation lasted for well over an hour and concluded with an invitation to make pots, we talked about Leach, Hamada, Cardew and Kawai among others. While I was there, Bill showed me a group of recently tooled teabowls with this strong and graceful pedestal feet on pots meant for various Shino and temmoku glazes. I was impressed by the way the feet were cut and how they created this distinct shadow and visual, some appearing like they were in the midst of "take off" , a rather animated lift that each bowl possessed, they were all winners in my book. Over the years I have continued to be been drawn to the kodai of Hamada and Kawai and I am a huge proponent of a pedestal style foot with as much lift as seems the pot can handle.

Illustrated is a recently fired teabowl form of rather robust proportions perched atop a pedestal foot and heavily textured creating visual and tactile interest in the bowl. The glaze surface starts with my Oribe glaze to which I then add a variety of other glazes over to mottle and activate the overall appearance of the piece. Though I am certainly influenced by the great master of modern Japanese pottery at its core, I continually strive to find a hint of the posture, movement and energy that Bill seemed to handle with little effort and a lifetime of pottery making.

WHISKEY, NEAT

Quite a while back I posted up a picture and Youtube video of a rather nice Kojima Kenji Iga tokkuri and as luck would have it, another found its way here. It would seem as reticent as I am about collecting tokkuri and guinomi they just seem to make the journey to Central NY to unite with kindred spirits. This Iga tokkuri is different than the previous having a rather brighter surface which has a nice pale green ash surrounding the surface and gem like drips of bidoro where the pot was fired on its side from the thick opaque drip at the lip to the two about to meet like good old friends at the center of the piece. The tokkuri feels nice in the hand and is quite easy to use and the posture adds a bit of amused bravado to the pot inquiring after the users intentions. Now that these two Kojima Kenji tokkuri have met up I think that it may be destiny to find a few more guinomi to go with them for use most likely with whiskey rather than sake but I am willing to bet the potter wouldn't mind for what they are used but rather that they are used and enjoyed.

1:2 x 3:2= 砧

 

For just the briefest moment today, a sliver of sun came in through the back window on to the shelves on the wall and for just an instant, this pot peaked out from the shadows. Showing off a coating of all natural ash this anagama fired Iga kinuta vase shows off its simple surface that is composed of a myriad of subtle colors that make up this ice sheet compressed within the line of the shoulder and a border of charcoal from where the pot rested during the end of the intense wood firing. I really respond to the interaction between clay and Sun but in the end, the pot has to deliver the goods all on its own, the lighting is just the delivery system of the senses in this case. In terms of this mallet, this is likely one of the simplest and purest kinuta forms that I have seen by Furutani Michio, stripped down, slightly angled sides and neck the minimal amount of marks around the torso of the piece. Fired in presumably one of the best spot in his kiln, Furutani allowed the firing process to write a majority of the story across the surface of the pot which as with many of his pieces at first glance seems a simple story but like many a great work, it is the subtleties, the nuances and the variations in color and light that portray a much more vivid and complex narrative at which this potter excelled. Even in the shadows, it is easy to see the mastery of Furutani Michio on full display and easily recognizable as Iga at its modern best.

PLAYING A FORM

I took a few moments yesterday while in the midst of making terra cotta pieces for the holidays to continue to work out a design I have been playing around with for a short while. The form is roughly based on a Japanese small hand drum known as a kotsuzumi, these small hand held drums look a bit like an hourglass in shape and are used in Noh, Kabuki and Min'yo (Japanese folk music). So far, most of the pieces have been either covered jars or bottle forms so I decided to make a koro loosely based on a version of this form. The illustrated greenware koro was completed just an hour or so ago and is composed of several pieces put together, the base and slab bottom, the central portion and large wing were thrown as one piece and the lid and applied knob. I used a square motif to tie the pieces together first impressing groups of squares around the central portion and in the wing and lid, pierced squares as both decoration and to allow the incense aroma and smoke to escape the pot. I used the ration of 2:3 (6" and 9") for the width of the base to that of the wing as a jumping off point and obviously the proportions can be played with in future attempts, this being the first of the kotsuzumi-koro trials. I am likely to glaze this in Oribe and should it make it through the glaze firing, I will post up the finished results at some point in the future.

"Let cloud shapes swarm, Let chaos storm, I wait for form."  Robert Frost

HIROSHIMA SHINO

Illustrated is a rather attractive  and simple Shino chawan by Arimoto Kugen that has a seductive appearance with areas of overlapping glaze which alters the depth and texture of the  surface. The contrasting areas of white and blushed pink hues are punctuated by randomly applied iron spots that bring motion and visual interest to the bowl presenting an image reminiscent of a modern abstract painting. Arimoto Kugen (b. 1963) fell in love with Shino early on in his life and didn't let living in Hiroshima stop him from his pursuit to make fine Mino influenced Shino-yaki. As you can see from this E-Shino chawan, Arimoto has succeeded at his dream of making fine Shino and has focused on form, function and a certain sense of practicality in his pottery making which makes for fine implements for the tea ceremony, everyday use and focal points for daily contemplation.

You can see more of this chawan over at my Trocadero marketplace; https://www.trocadero.com/stores/albedo3studio/items/1401087/SHINO-CHAWAN-BY-ARIMOTO-KUGEN

MORE THAN A THEORY

I was looking around the internet and though I may be a bit late to the realization, the web is truly a remarkable place, you can find and see things that just a few short years ago would have taken quite a bit of effort to do so. As my wife and I often remark, you are always just one click away from something you weren't even looking for and enter, stage left, this photo. Obviously not my photo and not of the greatest quality as it was photographed behind glass is what appears to be a sizable bowl by Araki Mikijiro decorated in a similar manner to the one that I put up a while back. The form and glaze is very similar to the one I had here with only a very slight variation in the decoration. For a large number of potters there is a rather simple conclusion that most always applies, if you see one piece than it is quite likely there are quite a number more and this bowl certainly substantiates that this is more than a theory.

"A theory must be tempered with reality."  Jawaharlal Nehru

IS(N'T) THAT CLEAR?

I will admit, I have been a bit busy and thus remiss in regards to getting some overdue testing done. To that end, I was doing a line blend test a short while back and at the extreme of the tests was an attractive, ever so slightly (!) milky clear glaze that I have decided to act upon. Though this was an unexpected outcome, I have wanted to work out a less shiny clear that had some softness to its appearance and with any luck I can get there through this formula with a few tweaks along the way. I sat down and threw a few small teabowls and once tooled, I covered them in black and white slip to see how these extremes look under  the new glaze though I am going to run more test pods through the upcoming glaze fire before committing to making up 2000gr of the formula and the potential for just ruining the small bowls. It strikes me how differently I work today as opposed to the all in, devil may care attitude I had regarding the process when I started. I guess that every kiln load of liver ware (supposed to have been copper red), twister ware and other smashing failures reinforce the prudence, patience and multi-phase testing process are the best course of action to save time, energy, money and yes, even a few extra moments of sleep!

As you can probably tell from the before and after photo, the test came out a bit more milky (and blue) than expected. I think making up a small batch of this glaze has paid off and I suspect I know exactly how to get it to where I want it in the next glaze test. Simply put I will try two additional variations, one in which the glaze is just used in a thinner consistency and the other in which I alter the gerstley borate quantity. With any luck, I should get pretty close to what I am after in the next round of testing.

"Cats have it all, admiration, an endless sleep and company only when they want it."  Rod McKuen

STORYTELLER

Every now and then I am reminded of some of the great potters who left us well before they should have, some were on the brink of greatness and others had clearly show their genius. Of the pivotal potters on this list, I often think of Bizen master, Kaneshige Michiaki whose work spans both tradition and contemporary expression where the manner in which he handled and used clay and his exceptional firing created objects that set a standard that all potters can strive to. I should also say that I have been rather fortunate to handle quite a number of Michiaki's pots over the years including at two shows* of his work in Japan in the early 1990s, though I must be honest and say they have all be his more traditional work geared around tea ceremony. I have not handled the chawan in this screen grab from an early 90s video series on Japanese potters but I can say this chawan is a classic piece in form and firing that as it rotates in the video presents a clear picture as to the form, posture and firing of an intoxicating bowl.

Even in this photo and in fact the video, the lyrical posture and animated movement of the form is an excellent canvas for Kaneshige Michiaki's well considered and experienced firings. This chawan just invites the viewer to participate in its narrative, asking you to come along on a journey as the potter and clay as storyteller weaves the past and present into a thoroughly enjoyable ceramic experience; it is quite easy to imagine this chawan letting you know, "I have a story to tell and it is a doozy".

SOULMATES?

I recently had this Nishiura Takeshi Echizen tokkuri here before send it on its international journey to finally be connected with a long, lost soulmate. Just waiting to be filled this Nishiura guinomi makes a great companion to the tokkuri with surfaces that show off Echizen wood firing in quite a good light. despite the fact that the internet has draw everything much closer together, like a huge electronic Pangaea, putting together sets from disparate locations has become the norm provided you can find the pieces in the first place. Though obviously both originated in Echizen, Japan, the tokkuri has taken a more circuitous route to the new owner than has the guinomi which came from potter, to gallery and then on to its new home.

The tokkuri's path is a bit more nebulous though it did travel about Japan before coming through a number of US States before it arrived in my hands and then on to presumably the last leg of its international journey. I realize these details regarding the travels and stopovers are of little or no consequence to most but I find the migratory patterns of pottery to be quite interesting as well as the motivations behind the push to get these pottery objects to move along in the first place. The current owner of the tokkuri had an interesting phrase, "catch and release" for pots and collectors who own pieces for a time and then pass them along to their new homes. The one point that I can interject regarding "catch and release" is that as both potter and collector having the ability to see and study a far reaching and ever changing group of pieces is always an enjoyable experience and it saves just a bit on airfare and rail passes to Japan.

Photo courtesy of a collector abroad.