IT TAKES TWO

This is a simple project that started with an email and then several more, it takes two people to get a project started and for me it takes two to get the exact right feel that I am after. Admittedly, neither look all that interesting at the moment but hopefully when fired it will be a different story. The idea for this jar was a small illustration from a comic book of all places and is intended as a gift and the customer is still considering the surface which will be one of four possible glaze combinations, hopefully the first try will be the charm. If the first jar works out than I will have the second jar to  glaze in a different surface at some future point and if you never see these again, well I bet you can guess the outcome! I like these odd out of left field projects, nothing all that complicated and I do like to throw and getting a commission to come right together from concept to completed piece is its own reward even if this doesn't allow me to buy a remote island somewhere near Fiji.    

"It takes two to make a thing go right, It takes two to make it outta sight...." Rob Base

UNUSUAL ENCOUNTER

I have to be perfectly honest, I am not very inclined to use the term "rare" and when exactly it should come in to play, instead I think it safe to say that this particular pot is unusual and encounters may be few and far between. Over the years I have seen  a handful of this particular style of Oni-Hagi by Tsukigata Nahiko where the glaze is thick and white in certain respects much like that of the Late Miwa Kyuwa and Miwa Kyusetsu XI, the pots were a couple of chawan, a few cylindrical vases, a mizusashi and this geometrically inclined te-oke hanaire.       

Looking a bit like the form was hacked out of a block of clay kurinuki style, this pot was thrown and then worked squared, faceted and had texture and a handle applied to finish off the study, stoic and potent pot completed with a carefully and painterly applied coating of this thick, luscious Oni-Hagi glaze. As you can see the use of bare clay and slight texture adds a dimension of casualness to the pot while the heavy, curdled and crawled texture of the white glaze compliments the form and adds dimension, topography that animates the vase. I think I should also point out some of the small details that keep this form fresh and animated from the curved planes at the very top of the pot to the careful and restrained use of texture on portions of the form and the thick and rough clay formed when the pot was faceted which adds considerable stability and visual weight to the vase that likely would be lesser for its omission; all details that help construct the whole. In the end it goes without saying that this pot is an exercise in line and texture, a slight departure from the more curvilinear forms that Tsukigata Nahiko is best known for but well within his ability to see and understand form especially under the weight of thick glazes, a skill at which he had mastered long before this pot was even considered.

EDO STYLE

Over the years I have seen a number of bottle forms very similar to the illustrated one from old classic Edo period pieces to their modern interpretations being made in Tamba. The forms and proportions of these ship's tokkuri can vary as well as their scale from small tokkuri size to large pots over 16" in height though this particular one measures a solid 12.5" tall and has somewhat simple lines that manage to result in a rather dramatic presentation. This Tamba bottle was made by Nishibata Tadashi and was dipped in an ash glaze prior to firing letting the natural ash atmosphere take over in completing the overall landscape of the piece. 

There are two distinct types of ash runs on the surface, one a bit dry and olive in nature and the other a glassy green terminating in bidoro drips at various points on the pot. The movement of the ash down the bottle juxtaposed against the purple-red fire color of the clay brings the form to life and makes for a rather rich landscape and gives me the feeling that I am looking at a horizontal style kakejiku scroll made of clay and ash. Though you will have to take my word for it, my wife had actual, real flowers in the vase for a couple of hours the other day and there is a potent completeness to the piece while in use and perhaps a hint of Edo style, I just wish I had taken some photos.

LATITUDE

I am pretty lucky that most galleries I send work to give me a certain amount of latitude in terms of what I send them. There is guidance based on what sells best for them in terms of styles and decoration but the amounts of super-specific items is left to me Admittedly this works out quite well allowing me to build a good rhythm in working and planning out what needs to be decorated while wet and what can wait until it is dry or bisque. This group picture was part of probably two dozen bowls made in three sizes though only two sizes are shown in the photo ranging from 2 to 6lbs with 8 of the bowls being covered in black slip and then carved, tebori style in these XO patterns. By breaking all the bowls in to three groups of eight it makes it easy to work through smaller groups of eight in the abstrakt resist, B&W slip and carved designs all in one sitting and as I have noted before, there is nothing that complicated in this process but it certainly makes for an enjoyable way to map out a cycle. Throwing, tooling and decorating work and then getting pots ready for the bisque concluding in a glaze firing, honestly nothing beats the humbling experience of unloading a kiln with a nearly 100% success rate which happens far less often then I would like to admit.

OUT OF THE FIRE

I always enjoy handling a "new" pot by Mino potter, Mizuno Takuzo, his work is built for function, practicality and for just the right amount of intriguing allure plucked right out of the fire. Having arrived here just today this robust Seto-Guro chawan is no different with a form thrown to capture the movement of the wheel, the slightly curdled surface offers just the right amount of texture to please both hand and eye while the interior is mostly smooth black to make it quite easy on the tea whisk. There are a few semi-dry areas to the glaze as to be expected but the majority has a nice wetness to the surface with a distinct teapool and bare clay exposed where a foot was tooled to complicate the overall piece. This pot was fired to red hot temperatures and then with long-handled tongs it was pulled, hikidashi style from the kiln and after a few moments plunged in to water to lock in the color and texture of the surface. Though Mizuno Takuzo was accomplished at a variety of styles, he was named Intangible Cultural Property of Toki for his exacting dedication to his Seto-Guro technique. If you look carefully you can see the remnants of the tong marks in the very center of the photograph which just adds to the black landscape of this chawan.

OLD WAYS

Emerging from the shadows and coated in a nice layer of ash and glass, this Shigaraki chaire reminds me of those antique feudal pieces that you can see in museums, especially in and around Shigaraki. There is as with many of these pieces, a timeless quality, a sense of antiquity where pots had strong, practical and purposeful forms and on a good day a rather well fired surface. This chaire was made by Tani Seiuemon who had for years studied and collected old pots and was dedicated to making Shigaraki-yaki in the "old ways" right down to building an anagama based on old Muromachi period designs. 

Using local Shigaraki clay and woods favored for such uncomplicated surfaces, there are many of the characteristics of the earlier archetypes in Tani's pottery from the way the clay is handled, to posture and the various marks and spatula work. I think it may be safe to say Tani Seiuemon's  works don't have the bold charisma of Tsuji Seimei or the flare and playfulness of Suzuki Goro but when it comes down to simplicity, honesty and practicality his pots are first on my list for use and for adding a magical and solitary sense of antiquity to a shelf in an otherwise modern environment.

STEP 2

Illustrated is step 2 in moving forward on the Hagi style white with my saffron iron glaze over and so far so good. As I previously mentioned this started as a "no expectations" glaze test and I am rather pleased with the results thus far. From this recent glaze firing I pulled out two teabowls and a covered jar and to my eye, the other teabowl is even better than this one (more to follow). The base glaze for this iron glaze is one that I have fine tuned and works with a wide array of alterations and colorants though the ilmenite and rutile additions kind of crashed and burned. Though the glaze was put on as a rather even coat around the surface, parts of the bowl show a deep saffron color and almost obscure the clay texture underneath while the remainder of the pot shows saffron streaking and running making for a rather intriguing and animated surface. As I have said, with no real expectations and not enough experience with the glaze combinations yet, the results have been fine by me and now I am looking at what are the possibilities for its use among different forms and different clay bodies. The bottom line is that more testing is needed and the expectation threshold is raising with each and every firing.

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

The box reads simply; MINO-ORIBE HANAIRE but the surface certainly says, this is a bit different then what you should expect but then again, that may sum up the pottery of Tsukamoto Haruhiko to a T. Tsukamoto Haruhiko (b.1959) has been making pots for over three decades originally training with Nosaka Shunsei and Asai Reiji, traditional Mino potters before becoming an independent potter and setting up his own studio in 1985. Since that time Tsukamoto has become quite well known and is exhibited and published throughout Japan having won several prizes along the way. As you can see he has blended elements of tradition with the ideas of modern vessel making that he sees in his mind's eye creating work in which it is always best to expect the unexpected.      

This whimsical Mino-Oribe vase was thrown with a fair amount of texture and throwing marks to the form and then carefully manipulated out of round and to slightly curve the pot from base to mouth with casual but distinct lugs finishing off the piece. There are incised marks on the front and back of the pot that almost mimic the incised signature on the base and these marks draw the eye from side to side and accentuate the slight curve of the form. This vase was glazed in Oribe with an ash glaze over before firing resulting in a vase that shows motion both horizontally and vertically and a rather playful sense of animation skillfully built in to the form. To complete the piece, the landscape presents a rather unexpected color palette for Mino-Oribe or any other Mino pot for that matter also creating a distinct front and back to ponder. I think it is clear that when encountering the work of Tsukamoto Haruhiko that the unexpected is in fact exactly what to expect which adds a new dimension to the modern Mino tradition.  

FACETED BLUE

I was quite aware of Phil Rogers and his work before I ever met him, I had several of his books and seen a number of his pots at various places with their rich  ash glazed or salt fired surfaces. I was fortunate to have met Phil in 2003(?) at  a Wesleyan Potters workshop and found that we had quite a lot in common regarding what potters and pots interested us so we kept in touch by email over the years. Beyond a few email exchanges it was clear that Phil was interested in collecting Hamada and Shimaoka pots which I stumbled on to from time to time and he was very keen on trading his pots for theirs when I would find something. By trading I was able to acquire a few very fine pots by Phil including a really large salt fired jug and a faceted cobalt bottle among other thing. After his trip to South Korea we lost touch as he was busy with a new family and working toward some wood firings but I enjoyed our trading and emails over the years quite a bit.     

Illustrated is a rather well salt fired cobalt bottle faceted across for planes that shows a rather diverse topography of depth of color and texture. Beyond the color and texture the neck and mouth are perfect and ringed by a wet ring of slat that varies in color and the foot is crisply and expertly cut and flanked by his personal mark and the mark of his pottery. Having some personal insight into a potter leads to a deeper connection with the pot and at times helps answers regarding the how and why certain details are the way they are and to be perfectly honest it really doesn't hurt knowing that both Phil and I were looking at exactly the same pots which make their way in to our pots even if it doesn't look like it.

FIVE BY FIVE

Illustrated is a greenware tebori XOXO covered jar that was one of five made at one sitting and dealt with the next day, morning for trimming, constructing and slipping and late afternoon for carving. Unlike a lot of other potters where I see dozens of the same thing I tend to stick to a dozen or less of a single pot to keep things interesting for me. This covered jar was thrown out of terra cotta, about 3 lbs of clay with matching lid, tooled, had a "broken branch" style knob affixed to the lid, black slipped and then carved later that afternoon with this simple XOXO patterned. Honestly the most difficult and time consuming part of this covered jar and getting the knob just right and getting it securely attached to the lid at the right time so that once fired there are no fine line cracks. Other than the trimming, slipping and carving, throwing five jars and five lids is quite an enjoyable way to spend some time while listening to in this case to one of my 80s remixes CDs.