EXPANDED

I am trying to finish up making pots to fill a kiln with a few orders, commissions and some tests and needed to make a handful of filler pots so I resurrected a technique i first used back in 1990. While attending NCECA I noticed a neat covered jar on the trade table and sought out the maker who I can not for the life of my remember his name though he was an educator from Utah. Since this was long before Youtube I ask him about the technique and here is how it was explained; first throw a thick, narrow cylinder, then using a toothed rib drag it up the surface to create a myriad of straight channels, next expand the form to the desired shape/ form. Though it sounded easy enough, I worked on the technique of expanding without wrecking the pieces once I got back to Cleveland and over an afternoon figured out the basics. This may not seem revolutionary but the dissemination of ideas and techniques was a bit slower in 1990 with Ceramics Monthly being on of the few publications showcasing things as they happened. Flash forward to Wednesday and I know have these two teabowls and a small covered jar tooled and waiting for a bisque firing. Though it may come as no surprise i am likely to glaze these in my Oribe or Kuro-Oribe glazes unless I decide to make a small batch of my old amber glaze though I am feeling a bit lazy.

MEMORY LANE

Though decidedly not pottery related seeing this small wood Dharuma, seen all over Japan, never fails to bring me on a journey down memory lane. On one of our trips to Japan we planned it so that we would be in the Kyoto area to take advantages of two large flea markets on successive weekends. On the first weekend we found ourselves at the small table of a woman who was easily in her 80s and we purchased a small itto-bori figure and when we got to our hotel room she had wrapped up this very cute itto-bori style carved Dharuma in our package. A week later we ran in to her again where she called us over and after thanking her for the gift, she had another very nice itto-bori carved dragon which we purchased and this time, she gifted us the smallest wood carved geta with two kokeshi dolls attached to it. Two years later we ran into her again, she was all smiles and showed us a carved wood tonkotsu inro dated 1844 which we purchased and she added an old Edo period lacquer netsuke to go along with the carved dragon and tigers on the piece. That was the last time we saw her though friends of ours several years later saw her and mentioned us, apparently she had a bid smile and every time I look at this little carved piece, I have a big smile as well.

DAILY MASTERWORK

The description for this chawan is about as simple as they come, TETSU-YU CHAWAN, iron glazed teabowl and that is rather appropriate for a bowl that isn't cluttered with superfluous detail and gets right to the point. This iron glazed wan-gata style chawan was made by Kimura Morinobu and is in many respects a quintessential example of his pottery which at all levels strives for a simple aesthetic that is packed with purpose and use. As you can see the bowl was thrown and left unaltered as it came off the wheel where the rounded and practical shape sits quietly on a small, raised foot that is both complimentary and stable for the form. The glaze its self is a varity of iron hues and possibilities filled with small crystal punctuations and the occassional white to clearish interjections adding a bit more to this monochrome landscape. It may seem a bit hyperbolic, but this is just a classic and near perfect chawan that is easy on the eye and ideal for its intended function whether for use in chanoyu or to serve as an everyday reminder of the beauty of pottery.        

Perhaps as a testament to the quality of this tetsu-yu chawan, this bowl is illustrated in a book entitled; KIMURA MORINOBU 50 Years of Work 1951 -2000. Published in 2000, the book is broken up into four sections outlining the diversity of his forms and glazes, many of which are based on ash which he burns and processes himself. One overarching theme is the conscious simplicity of much of the work with one eye to function and one to an creativity that pays some homage to the varying Kyoto aesthetics. I should mention the illustration does not really adequately portray the chawan as it appears in person where the fullness of form and the bright and glimmering surface have a quality of comforting quietness and perpetual contemplation. Of all the work that I have seen and handled by Kimura Morinobu I don't think I am going to far out on a limb to say this is likely one of my favorite pots by him that seems to embody the vision and aesthetic of the potter where just working, dedicated to his craft was more than enough to create those moments of daily masterworks and studied simplicity.

SWEET DREAMS

I recently put up an older fluted Oribe teabowls on Instagram and it got me thinking of perhaps the oddest pot that I have ever made. Well to be clear, I have made pots that would certainly classify as odder but rather it is the purpose that I found a bit out of the usual. This Oribe covered jar was made as an homage to a Sukhothai style temple, not my design as the final resting place for a Thai giant rat, rescued from the fur trade and raised as a house pet. I can't remember the name of the rat, I just referred to it as "biggie" after the rapper, Biggie Smalls. As for this jar, it was thrown thick and had the horizontal fluting tooled into the surface and was glazed in my very first Oribe glaze back in the 1990s. Perhaps the neatest feature was where the Oribe glaze pooled in the furrows creating rich, dark bands around the pot which became darker and darker as it ran down the pot. Once "biggie" was cremated, he (?) was placed inside the jar in a plastic bag, just barely fitting and the lid was sealed on the pot using thick sealing wax. Though I have made a number of special commission pots over the years, the final resting place for the large rodent ranks as perhaps the oddest thing I have made, sweet dreams "biggie".

MEMORIAL DAY 2023

"And they who for their country die

shall fill an honored grave,

for glory lights the soldier's tomb,

and beauty weeps the brave." Joseph Rodman Drake

RARE AND UNUSUAL

When I first saw this Shigaraki mizusashi it immediately reminded me of a rather important piece by Kato Tokuro that was made in Showa 48 (1973) and that I think of as a somewhat rare and unusual example of his work being best known for his Shino, Ki-seto and Seto-Guro. Looking at this mizusashi I can see details that certainly show the influences of the Tokuro piece in this rustic and casual pot which is only natural since the maker, Ando Hidetake studied under him beginning in 1960 and was more than likely acquainted with the original. Though I clearly see the influence of the master in this pot the form is lighter in attitude, casual in its throwing and in the way the lugs are attached and very little was done to put marks on the pot allowing the earthy, rocky clay and the fire to carry out the majority of the "decoration" as it were. The pot has a slightly wet coat of ash across the majority of the face while the rear has patches of a rich hi-iro punctuated by the appearance of the rocky clay and feldspar coming out of the clay. There are a pair of cumbly lugs attached to the pot adding a hint more of an anthropomorphic presence which is tied into the knob on the lid which completes the pot. 

Though this is a classic pot by a well known Mino tradition potter, the form, posture and animation of the piece is clearly duplicated in the numerous other mizusashi that Ando has made in varying incarnations of Shino and his unique Ko-Mino works as well. At some level it may be fair to say this is a rare and unusual work by Ando Hidetake but truth be told if you look at enough work and through enough catalogues there is just enough Shigaraki pottery to say that they were made every now and again and more than likely when just the right mood struck him.

WHAT'S IN THE BOX III

I made a couple of these covered boxes recently and glazed both in the surface I refer to as Kuro-Oribe whether it is accurate or not. Both are rather simple forms, roughly the same dimensions but each a slightly different form and with different knobs or finials. The covered box form illustrated has a rather dome like structure and rests on four feet, the surface is a graded version of the Kuro-Oribe and the lid is fitted with a cornucopia style handle that functions perfectly and hopefully compliments the volume and idea of the overall pot. I think that all in all the sunlit pictures shows off the actual surface rather well with areas of green showing through the slightly darker surface as well as the clay texture where rib met clay and left marks around the pot. I like making smaller, intimate pots that hopefully see some use beyond sitting up on display, though functional or not, a hand made pot up on a shelf is not such a bad thing after all. 

 "Whatever you have to have, try to have something that is handmade." Nirmala Srivastava

https://www.trocadero.com/stores/albedo3studio/items/1478573/ORIBE-CORNUCOPIA-COVERED-DOME-BOX-FORM

HOSOGUCHI HANAIRE

I can't honestly say I know quite where this form comes from, perhaps the kinuta mallet, a musical instrument, a boat anchor, I just don't know. What I do know is that Hagi veteran Yamato Yasuo has made a large number of these forms going back to the 1970s and continuing to the present day. The box this vase comes in has the following description on the lid; KOHIKI SAI HOSOGUCHI HANAIRE or colored kohiki, narrow mouthed vase and is as good a description as I could imagine. The round, globe-like body is further decorated in large iron red squares a design that he uses on nearly all of his forms and the long neck has a soft and lustrous appearance due to the way the piece was glazed. Though this vase looks a bit fragile and even precarious, the weight of the base makes this function perfectly for its intended use, balancing a single blossom of small branch without flinching from its duty.

SHISA

Over the years my wife and I exchange small gifts on special occasions, gifts that usually don't include the democratic process of collecting, simple and personal pieces and in recent years both kogo and koro seem to be at the top of this list. Illustrated is an Okinawan kogo that was a birthday gift for Mindy several months back, it is simple, fun and fits in with other kogo and koro that we have been collecting. This shisa (shishi) guardian kogo (シーサー香合)  was made by Tamada Akira who has won a number of awards and commissions in and around Okinawa including making dinnerware used at the Shurijo castle in 2000 and works for the Hyatt Regency (Naha) and the Ritz Carlton (Kise). Clearly a studio piece, this idiosyncratic shishi is used for a number of Tamada's pieces from kogo and koro to yuhin and teapots making their origin immediately recognizable where shishi are everywhere standing out a bit from the crowd is never a bad thing. All in all a fun little omiyage style gift that brings a little smile every time it is approached, especially from the rear!

EVERYDAY TEAPOT

I put up a post about an everyday covered jar made of terra cotta and decorated in what I call abstrakt resist. From that firing here is another everyday pot, a teapot using the same materials and basic decorating idea. This teapot was made to be a familiar and easy to use pot, it will hold enough for four but honestly is intended for a more intimate engagement among two friends. the basic idea for my teapots comes from my time spent making pots with Bill Klock who brought the English tradition of making and drinking tea into his studio where we would take breaks and discuss all kinds of things over a good strong cuppa or two. Beyond making pots we would discuss pottery, Leach, Cardew, Kawai, current politics and his philosophy on life. I am not 100% sure I have got to that point but I have tried to build this sense of purpose and use into these everyday pots made from of simple forms and rugged materials, maybe with the next group.