W&R

Illustrated is a quick, impromptu and candid picture of a Hori Ichiro Ki-Seto chawan that I have had here for a while taken in natural light on the corner of my desk. As you can see in the picture the landscape of the bowl is composed of an array of textures and colors making for an interesting visual read. Prior to this photo, I had taken a number of pictures of this chawan and finally got around to building this slideshow video which I am hoping captures the bowl to the fullest.

 I am a huge fan of Hori's works and love his masterful use of form, his kodai, his various glazes and of course his way of firing to coerce every nuance and detail from his pottery. This particular broad and appealing Ki-Seto chawan has that classic Hori allure in which he has taken fullest advantage of clay, materials and firing to create a rather Momoyama infused pot that exudes a timeless and intent focus by defining the object and its function. It is quite easy to see the sense of antiquity in this chawan coupled with a weathered and rustic appearance that is the basis for the oft used wabi-sabi terminology but in this case, I believe it applies rather well. Enjoy this short video slideshow of this rather enjoyable Ki-Seto chawan.

You can see more of this chawan over on my Trocadero marketplace; https://www.trocadero.com/stores/albedo3studio/items/1426493/KI-SETO-CHAWAN-BY-HORI-ICHIRO

KONDO OBI

Over the years I suspect I have seen quite a few obi though with few exceptions I haven't really paid too much attention to them with the possibility of several by Serizawa Keisuke. In all that time I was aware that a number of obi had been painted or decorated by rather famous celebrities and artists including a rather wonderful example that has vivid calligraphy by Toko Shinoda and another by Morita Shiryu. As I said though obi aren't exactly on my radar and despite that fact in just the last handful of months I have encountered, handled and been shown a number of pieces with additions by the like of Tomimoto Kenkichi, Shimizu Uichi, Hamada Shoji and by Kondo Yuzo as illustrated here.

Most likely dating to the late 70s or early 80s this obi has a large front panel as seen in this illustration and a smaller panel on the rear when worn and depicted in a variety of pigments based on blue, red and silver to create one of his classic landscape designs. As is readily apparent the brush work is typical of the artist and has a lively feel to  it and creates one of those evocative far off locations that we dream of from time to time. What I have concluded after seeing these richly decorated obi by rather famous artists and potters is that I should probably be looking at obi far closer than I have in the past.

INQUISITIO DE PRAETERITO

Having a blog and a storefront up you never know who is going to email and what it may be about. In many instances I get questions about how did I do this or that, some are people from the past just catching up and saying hi and some ordering new work and like so much of the internet there are also some that you don't necessarily want to deal with. That being said, I was recently contacted by someone who used to haunt the Cleveland gallery scene back in the 90s who has since moved out West and they asked me if I was still making a particular kind of work. At first I was a bit bewildered by the description and after looking through some old images I found exactly what they were talking about, see the illustration. 

I remember making these teapots in a variety of styles but this pair really eludes the time and reason they were made though I "suspect" they were made for a show quite possibly at the GBF Gallery in Cleveland for a teapot or tea themed show. At the time I was playing around with this specific metallic glaze and paper/tape resist and both of these pieces had gemstones, an uncut and tumbled amethyst and a citrine attached as knobs using sterling wire. To get to the point, they wanted to know if I could make another pair for their daughter-in-law using the corresponding gemstones to the husband/wife's birthstone (!). I explained that I wasn't even sure what the glaze was though I would search around through my highly organized notes (sarcasm alert) and see what I could figure out. I really wouldn't be opposed to making another set though admittedly they would be a bit different than those illustrated.

  

If it weren't for my presence on the web, I would most likely never have heard from these particular customers who made my stay in Cleveland quite a wonderful experience so the search begins. Now all I have to do is look through a dozen or more banker boxes and thousands of tiny scrapes of paper without dates in most case and disassociated from each other. I think my wife is right, after all these years of making pottery maybe it is time to get a tad more organized.

HAPPY FOURTH

In strange and trying times I wanted to wish one and all a very Happy Fourth of July. I believe that now more than ever it is of greater importance to dwell on what unites us than that which divides and weakens us as a nation combating issues on multiple fronts and I am reminded of this simple quote by one of the founding fathers who along with his contemporaries sacrificed so much in an effort to create a "more perfect union". 

"Then join in hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall."  John Dickinson

FWS

Things being what they are during these strange days, I have had a bit more time and went ahead and made up a handful of slideshow videos. This slideshow video is of the Enomoto Kyousuke Shino chawan that I photographed some weeks back. I think this video gives an insight in to the atmosphere, texture and depth of the glaze and the neat details that bring this Enomoto chawan to life. Beyond the thick, fat white Shino, two other features that show an attention to detail is how the bowl is lobed altering the symmetry of the form and the simple way in which the wari-kodai is articulated sloping inward and limiting contact with whatever surface it commands. I hope this short video gives a sense of what this Shino chawan is like in hand.

HANABI

At first thought you may wonder what do Jackson Pollack and The Heino(s) have in common and from my perspective it is about  application. Pollack is Pollack and I think anyone that knows his work also understands his method and application, for Gertrude and Otto Heino I remember seeing these stoneware pots, from small to large with vivid slashes and drips of oxides and glazes decorating the pots. My first thought way back in the early days of decorating was how do you combine these two ideals to animate and liven up a surface and while playing around way back at CSU I came up with this idea of Pollack's windows where there where slightly asymmetrical squares across a dark black background on terra cotta with splashes and trails of color and slips across the surface, in the end it just reminded me of fireworks going off and decorating the pieces.

Flash forward to a recent request from a long time customer who wanted something for a July 4th tea ceremony he was having. Since he has ordered terra cotta pieces as well as stoneware I suggest this hanabi (sky flower) style decoration for his commission of teabowl, mizusashi, kensui, futaoki, kensui and shakutate. I set about making a pair of teabowls first to see if it worked for him and got his approval to make the entire set which has been completed and shipped out with actual time to spare. What is illustrated is the ghost piece, the shadow set as I only made one lid rest, waste water bowl and ladle stand which may not have been the smartest thing but it ended up working out. As you can see what ties these pieces together id the specific white decoration that is on all the pieces as well as the limited use of splashed colors being confined to red iron, grey and a teal blue. These are fun to decorate but a bit messy and with the right consistency and brush there is a small degree of control that you can exert, all I can say now is Happy Forth!

You can see more of this trio over on my Trocadero webpage;

http://www.trocadero.com/stores/albedo3studio/items/1426797/item1426797store.html             

BASHO MIKOMI

I took a large group of photos of a Furutani Kazuya chawan some months back and put them in a folder and only recently really looked them over. As soon as I saw this particular picture, a detail of the mikomi, the pool and interior I was reminded of a favorite poem by Matsuo Basho that I think about from time to time while enjoying the moonlight piercing the trees throughout the Mohawk River Valley. This detail shot clearly shows the beautiful build up of natural ash inside the chawan creating a deep green pool with areas of fractured crust that tried building up on the liquid contents at the height of the firing. It is quite easy to see all of the rivers of ash moving into the lowest point of the chawan's interior painting a wonderful if unintentional pattern which is honestly made even more brilliant by the addition of the sun. As I am often reminded, this is only a solitary detail but even so, I can do with details like this singular or otherwise in all the wood fired pots that I get to see and handle.

Moonlight slanting

through the bamboo groove;

a cuckoo crying     (Basho)

NAME THAT TUNE

I have a friend that now and again sends me close-up or detail photos of pots he has either collected or recently handled, sort of a Name That Tune kind of things only in this case, who made the pot. I will be honest, I usually do fairly well, perhaps I get 90% or so right though when it comes to detail shots of the various wood fired traditions or things like sometsuke ware it can get a bit difficult. Prior to this photo I was sent a picture that showed the very top of an abstract mountain rendered in underglaze blue which was obviously  a student of Kondo Yuzo so I jumped right to Kondo Hiroshi except it was actually painted by Shinoda Gi'ichi and there were clues I ignored.

That brings me to this unusual detail shot which was actually quite easy as I had actually only recently seen this very piece made by Morino Kako, a master of glazes and father of Morino Taimei. The bottle has this rather unusual red, iron base glaze with areas of transparent green crazed glaze and where the two meet it creates these brilliant boundaries of black, gold and other iridescent effects which I can say I have only seen on Kako's pottery. In looking though several catalogues on Morino Kako, the majority of pieces glazed in this fashion were made later in life and some of the forms are quite playful in there geometry with this piece being a simple, small rectangular henko though punctuated with these brilliant, cosmic storms around the pot surface making for a much larger scale than the dimensions may necessarily imply.

JUST A JUG

I have probably mentioned on an occasion or two that I am very influenced by the pitchers and jugs of the late Bill Klock and having had the chance to handle quite a few of them, I hope I have learned a thing or two or even three. The biggest problem with Bill's pitchers and jugs is that for quite some time I was very intimidated by them and only on the rarest occasion did I throw any and truthfully they were just too close to his pieces. In order to move on I spent a fair amount of time learning about and searching out medieval and earlier pitchers in order to make my way clear of the shadow of Bill's pots and this particular form is one that I settled on and still make to this day. This temmoku, stamped jug isn't terribly large at about 12" tall but it has a strict, almost formal form that is broken up with the deeply impressed designs around the widest point of the belly and the exaggerated throwing rings around the neck. The temmoku also has broken nicely on either side of the handle creating a framework for the deep rich glaze in between either edge and all told just enough detail has been added to break up the surface and give the pot the right amount of eye appeal. This is just a jug, nothing more but there are lessons learned from Bill Klock, Warren MacKenzie and others in this pot but they are subtle and I would like to think the bigger picture is all about how I see and make pottery just outside the cast shadow.

COOL POOL

Visual depth and enticing clarity are clearly on display on this cool pool of comforting and alluring azure blue as created by Heki-yu specialist Kimura Yoshiro. Whenever I handle this piece, especially as the temperatures begin to climb I find myself moving from light source to light source trying to pull out every nuance and detail from the rich azure pool. Created as the glaze was made liquid by the heat of the firing allowing the contents to build up and fashion a mystifying gem as if created in the crucible of a dying sun or in this case a potter's kiln. I believe I have posted this guinomi in a previous blog post and hate to be redundant but this detail only recently captured while the piece was showing off in the sunlight made for a clear example of what it is about Kimura Yoshiro's works that is so intoxicating .Succinctly put there is a  dramatic merger of simplicity and seduction in this case in the form of a glaze which becomes all the more alluring the thicker it becomes. Though intended for a specific function I can never bring myself to obscure the pool with any contents, spirited or otherwise.

"Ringed with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; he watches from his mountain walls, and like a thunderbolt he falls."   From THE EAGLE by Alfred Lord Tennyson