SCRAP PAPER

Back when I was working at Cleveland State (CSU) I used to carry a backpack with all of my essentials since I was gone from before 7am to after 6pm every day and in my pack I had this book pouch (six by eight inches) that I would stuff with scrap paper pieces I found along the way to sketch on while on the train to and from home or at the studio as ideas would come to mind. I recently found the pouch tucked away in a box in the studio and it still had hundreds of quickly rendered sketched ideas, some used and some long forgotten just like this one. 

This cup/ mug design idea is on the reverse of an advertising card for a restaurant in downtown Cleveland and shows a group of "landscapemen" decorated around the surface entitled, Sermon on the Mug. I vaguely remember using this idea on some mugs in both tebori style, carved through black slip as well as black and white slip trailed. Many of these designs worked in a variety of styles and some were just momentary or singular attempts and others I find myself using to this day but finding the sketches was an interesting reminder of where some ideas sprung from. I continue to use the "landscapeman" design on mostly terra cotta pots and credit all the time that needed passing as I was riding the rails, making my way to and from the CSU studio, I think it was time well spent.

YOH

 The first thing that I notice about this Iga mizusashi is the posture, if you look along the right side of the piece you can see that there is a graceful, playful curve that seduces the eye and brings the viewer on a vertical journey from foot to knob. Along this journey there is a narrative painted on the face of the pot, painted in fire and various woods used in the kiln and then the eye pauses for a moment of the ear like lugs with their exotic emerald bidoro earrings that are suspended in time, defying what we think we know about physics. I love such a ride, a journey that takes in form, surface and all the subtle and overt details that create a pot, there is conversation, even story telling suspended in the thrown and fired clay that just doesn't get old even as the pots do.

This Iga mizusashi was made by Tanimoto Yoh, son of Tanimoto Kosei who beginning in his very traditional roots has sprung into a potter who sees the past and wedges it into his modern clay pots and objects. Though I hold tradition and craft supreme, it is impossible to ignore the fact that both need to move forward in order to survive and this pot and those that followed nudge further along the timeline of an evolving convention with every firing.

HALF & HALF

I had this chawan come and go quite a number of years ago but recently stumbled on to a folder with pottery that belonged to a collector who was moving and selling off much of his stuff. This somewhat early Furutani Michio Shigaraki chawan was one of a number of pots that I photographed at the time and what was the most memorable about this piece was that along with the half and half appearance of ash and hiiro, it was one of the most purposeful and functional teabowls that I had handled. It is easy to say that a pot is all business but in this case I think it is not hyperbolic to label it as such. Perfect size, perfect utilitarian form, lip, foot and features that all add up to a chawan that is just perfect for the job. The simple, solitary mark incised around the waist  helps break up the form while the shell impressions and the movement from ash to fire color adds to not only the visual experience but the tactile one as well. I think at the end of the day that being all business is really not such a bad thing after all.

LEFT OVERS II

Illustrated is another pot that I fired a short while ago with the intention of getting a variety of left overs and odds and ends finished. This abstrakt resist trumpet vase is a rather interesting piece in that this pot is probably the longest anything has ever hung around without being fired or eventually broken up. I believe this pot is about 2 or 3 years old and was made as a group of very similar vases in a series thrown in two pieces and assembled, this was then put up on the top shelf and just never made it in to a bisque or beyond because of its height. At some point I put a small plastic bag over it and there it sat until December of 2020 where it was finished off with all the other pots that just accumulated from poor kiln space management. So the short version of this tale is that it is finished, fired without any problems and will likely now go back on a shelf until it is needed, I guess that means it has come full circle.

HERE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW

Illustrated is a two-vue collage or a rather nice Oni-Shino vase form by Tsukigata Nahiko. The photo was taken on a desktop in natural light which shows off the form and surface quite well but perhaps the really eye catching performing in this production is all of the all natural running ash on nearly the entire surface. With areas of crusty ash build up around the mouth, running iron peeking out from underneath the shimmering crystalline fractured Shino glaze which has become infused with the ash from the wood kiln to activate and animate the entire surface.

I was able to handle and study this sturdy pot for a short while, here today, gone tomorrow thanks to a fellow collector who has an rather nice collection of a number of potters that I am really enamored with. It was rather satisfying to have this very classic Oni-Shino pot around at the very same time that I had another Tsukigata vase out on display. The two pieces though linked by the commonality of the term Oni-Shino are very different in their appearance, there was this one based predominantly on the lighter Shino surface and the other that was painted with a lot more iron, a face covered in a nice coating of ash and a large area of thick green ash which in the end divided the pot into thirds in terms of its surface. Though they may have been quite different in their presentation, the posture, strength and vision of Oni-Shino is clearly painted across the surface of the easily identifiable forms of Tsukigata Nahiko.

SAME-HADA

I'll start by saying this photo was neither intentional or planned and was pure happenstance. This sharkskin glazed Shino chawan was sitting on the corner of my desk and when I walked back in I saw this area of the interior highlighted by the last remaining ray of the day's sun. This sharkskin, same-hada Shino chawan was made by Kato Yoshiaki and is a classic example of the texture over the entire bowl though the nodule sizes vary quite a bit as determined by the application. At first glance the texture really appears more like that of a large lizard but the use of same has a long history of use especially on the handles of Nihonto, Japanese swords so an affiliation with that material and origin makes quite a bit of sense. As one can imagine the texture of this work is rather a unique one and quite comfortable despite the appearance, each nodule of glaze is smooth and for the most part covered in a sheen of ash adding to the visual texture as well. Having handled a group of Kato Yoshiaki's works, including several chawan I can say that his work appears driven by function but in no way did he want to leave out the fundamental truth that appearances matter.

MOTTLED MARKS

In a recent discussion with a potter though quite some distance away but Earthly bound, the topic turned to making marks, marks and their meaning. Admittedly many marks that I make on my pottery may seem obtuse or abstract (or abstrakt) even though many times there is meaning, narration and symbolism in decoration that may appear otherwise and I am sure I am not alone in this. Some marks, design and decoration like with this carved teabowl showcases an incised narration, which is meaningful to me and meaningful enough to commit it to clay and fire it into permanence. As I make these marks I wonder if it is necessary to spell out the implicit meaning of the design, the decoration and in the end I leave it to the viewer to see and interpret as they see fit, according to their ideas and experiences besides who really wants to know what crazy ramblings are rolling around in other people's heads?

This teabowl with its mottled marks is a classic example of what I am talking about, these marks are more than decoration and have meaning  though not all marks do. I slipped this simple stoneware in a white slip and then once almost dry I incised, carved the marks around the bowl to create lines that are not crisp and show areas of chipping and roughness, once bisque I glazed this in an Oribe variant and added iron over areas of the bowl to create a rich texture that has a nice range of effects especially in the sunlight. 

"Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind." Sir Terence (Terry) John Pratchett OBE

CAN I GET A ROLL WITH THAT, PLEASE? PART TWO

Over the years I have realized what a great yet fickle artist that gravity can be especially when it comes to pottery and glazes. As I have I have written about for my blog over the years, I love runny glazes and what effects may occur from the process of molten glaze affected by both chemistry and gravity. Currently as we all do, I count on gravity and in my case for determining the qualities that I have come to enjoy in the various Oribe(s) that I work with. 

As for the illustrated temmoku chawan I am not sure how much the potter planned for or encouraged gravity to affect his surface but this luscious temmoku roll where the glaze terminates is just wonderful. The thick glaze rolls down the pot a bit unevenly which enhances the color and texture of the clay acting a bit like a dark frame for the rather practical and efficiently cut kodai. This temmoku chawan was made by Kimura Morinobu, one of the three Kimura brothers (Morikazu, Moriyasu and Morinobu) who's work has a rather elemental appeal and despite my characterizing his work as functional and practical there is a common and honest beauty to his work which is very captivating and not so easily encountered.

THEN, NOT NOW

Originating from the same book that I got the Kohyama tokkuri and guinomi picture from, I thought this picture of a rather early Kumano Kuroemon was worth sharing and was also interesting juxtaposed against Kohyama Yasuhisa's set made in a more mature style than that of this Kumano pairing. Clearly still a bit distant from his more mature style, these pieces bare a stronger relationship to traditional Shino though obviously rather aggressively wood fired. The form of the tokkuri clearly shows the basis of his more contemporary pieces despite the surfaces lacking the modern maturity we have all become accustomed to yet every has a starting point on their way to "now". I have actually handled a number of Kumano's pots from the late 80s and early 90's and if you divorce yourself from a more contemporaneous expectation and enjoy them for what they are, these pieces are quite enjoyable with a bold visual and tactile texture that is quite different than most pots springing from the Momoyama Shino driven tradition. However you decide to view this duo, I suspect they are more than up to the task of their intended function and willing to provide a heaping helping of whatever you fancy.

9 TO 11*

Back when this bottle was made, I had a bucket full of the glaze made from the last of a rather particular source of ash that I was trying to ration out but to all good things. As I am now finding out having made up more ash glaze recently with the base material from a different source is just how different the effects within the glaze can be. In the picture the mottled, almost tortoise shell effect is plain to see on this temmoku and ash glazed bottle over a combed decoration, neither planned or controllable this just happened on the majority of pieces that it was used on but with the new incarnation most of this "patterning" is all but gone. Truth be told, I was well aware of how different varying ash sources can be having used the material for decades and seeing rather dramatic variations within the same recipes and temperature range, this is the nature of the beast. I do still have some of that ash, ash that I was given by Bill Klock the last time that I saw him though I will use it as wisely as possible in the future and only on pots that I think, or hope that Bill would have approved of. 

(* average pH of wood ash)