THREE-PART

I am sure if you happen to read any of my blog-posts, it seems like an overused description but when I first saw this pot, timeless just echoed through my mind at literally the speed of sound. This very well fired Shigaraki hanaire is by Furutani Michio and is clearly inspired by the Chinese cong form crafted in jade and ceramics that dates all the way back to the Shang Dynasty. Totemic in its form and aspiration, this bottle was hand-built for a coarse clay with alternating impressions decorating the surface and breaking up the long planes of each side as well as catching ash for a rather appealing effect. The ash runs a wide array of colors surrounding the vase from greens, greys, light blues and even rich emerald greens making for a rather abstract landscape painted across a rich ceramic canvas. Though clearly based on a form that goes back perhaps 3000 years, Furutani Michio has blended the old with his inner voice of what is possible where vision, influences and tradition come together like a great three-part harmony.

ELEMENTS

I really enjoy making covered pots, especially easy to use, not too large, not to small pieces of which I think this pot is a classic example of. This is from a series exploring a form that blends my old “whirling dervish” pots with an exaggerated bamboo node association. The thick combed slip has the look of sudare, bamboo blinds while at the same time could be seen as a dense bamboo grove swaying in the wind finished off in my Kuro-Oribe surface from top to bottom.    

Beyond the form, this pot is about the movement of the glaze partially created by the thick combed slip, moving diagonally while creating dark pools of green to black on the highpoints and transition lines which is clearly highlighted by the sun in the second picture. There is nothing earth-shattering about this form, the scale or even the surface but I would like to think when you assemble all the elements it is certainly a bit better than any single detail and as a potter, I think that is the best I can ask for.

 

Kyoto Shino

I guess when you think about it, Shino and Kyoto don’t necessarily spring into mind at the same time but so many styles and traditions are being undertaken vast distances from their origins, it is just the way things are. This shimmery Yohen Shino guinomi was made in Kyoto by Nakamura Kotaro and has a rather pleasant form that is reminiscent of larger chawan with a perfectly proportioned foot that has a slight hexagonal flair to it. The guinomi has areas of thick Shino applied over a thinner base of glaze while much of the interior and exterior are blanketed in an iridescent sheen which is unmistakable even in dim, low light. I should also mention the lip is highlighted by a wonderful blue-grey collar that is also tinged with areas of dark, deep black for another eye-catching detail on this small little gem. This was my first actual encounter with Nakamura Kotaro’s work and certainly makes me look forward to seeing more, a nice big chawan would be most welcome.

 

SOLO

I posted this photo up covered in some Xmas trapping back for Christmas and thought to present it in a more uncluttered fashion. This intricately glazed Shino oval baker form is adorned with a solo fish motif and just enough other glaze accents to bring the piece and its imagery to life. Made by Bruce Gholson, sometime in the 1990s, this was a last-minute Christmas gift that we purchased for each other as finding pots in this style seems to be a bit less easy than expected. At over 21” long this makes for a wonderful using piece as well as just looking darn good just sitting around and collecting dust. As I mentioned previously, I was first exposed to Bruce’s work way back at the American craft Gallery in Cleveland, Ohio and we have moved his pieces from location to location over the years and though I am not relishing any more moves, I could be perfectly fine with finding another Gholson pot or two.

CHIPPED SURFACE

Illustrated is a stoneware teabowl that has a random, almost chipped surface, a type of faceting that has been around for quite some time. This bowl was glazed in my Kuro-Oribe style surface but for some reason has a lot of rather runny, droozy effects cascading down the bowl and collecting on the ridges creating a rather pleasant deep black to dark blue appearance adding a bit more to the landscape of the bowl. Though this was not intentional, it happens now and again when I get a bit aggressive in the final glaze applications.  This teabowl and a few others were recently added to my Trocadero marketplace if you want to see a few more pictures;

https://www.trocadero.com/stores/albedo3studio/catalog/

FORM CONSCIOUS

I have to say, this is a form that you don’t encounter that often by the versatile and very form conscious mind and hands of Kawai Takeichi. As is pretty clean, this is a molded henko form and since I am not really so good at making molds, I suspect this is a four-part mold, correct me if I am wrong. The angles, planes, dividing boundaries and mouth all work in perfect harmony with the form if just a bit busier than I am used to seeing from the potter. Using all the lines of the piece, Kawai Takeichi skillfully applied shinsha, gosu and tetsu-yu glazes to create this patchwork assemblage across a tall and commanding monolith that is clearly rooted in some architectural elements or another. The glazing and firing carefully present a semi-crisp landscape where the edges and meeting junctures blend ever so little in a soft and appealing manner. As I said, I don’t usually see such complex forms among the Kawai school potters but this one is clearly a welcome addition to Takeichi’s body of work and the tradition in general.

TEABOWL EXHIBITION

Just wanted to call attention to the third Philadelphia International Teabowl Exhibition curated by mark Tyson, this starts on 2/1 and can be seen in person in Wallingford, PA or on the internet at; https://communityartscenter.org/. As mentioned, this is the third such exhibition and includes pieces from around the world, over 400 pieces will be on display. This is absolutely worth checking out!    

I wanted to mention that I was lucky enough to be included in this exhibition, showing three Oribe style teabowls, two thrown and alter with cut feet and the third a more conservative thrown stacked stones style piece. Illustrated is one of the T&A bowls, thrown out of a small batch clay with sand, the form was slightly manipulated and then softly faceted exposing more texture before the base and foot were addressed using a small piece of wood to cut away the unwanted clay. The feet are on the smaller side as I really enjoy this look and precarious feeling, where the pieces were fired on pins, the marks were then covered over in small dots of gold lacquer epoxy.     

This is a new style of bowl for me, well new for 2024 and has sprung out of more conservative attempts at making such pieces and hopefully have a slightly more casual and free spirit. The Oribe glazed used, which I refer to as Kuro-Oribe has quite a few tones of Oribe green through-out the form and also shows off a degree of blue-grey drooze as gravity certainly played its part in the making. In point of fact, it is gravity that has driven me to firing these on pins as a teabowl lugging around a heavy shelf is surely less functional than I intended. If you go to the exhibition, please be sure to give these bowls a once over.

 

RAQQA-DUO

Though not an exact match, these two Toruko-ao guinomi, currently referred to as the Raqqa-duo are close enough in form, surface and design. Collected separately over perhaps a half a year, these guinomi are both nearly the exact weight, size and though the decoration is a bit different, the glaze is spot on enough for them to be a pair. Though I constantly refer to myself as an “accidental collector” of guinomi, I truly enjoy Kato Kenji’s work and once I ended up with the first one it seemed a bit of a shame to pass on the second. Now that I have the two, I guess the next plausible step is to search around and find a tokkuri that matches and if along the way, numbers three, four and five show up, then kismet has interfered once again in my collecting.

RUSTY STEEL

This modest wood fired pot looks every bit the aftermath of some volcanic eruption or fiery geological event. The mountainous form, with uneven and craggy mouth perched atop the piece trails areas of running ash, fire scorched effects and some areas of fused and flashed charcoal coat the surface and completing a rathe elemental and primal form and surface. The form has a rather engaging sense of proportion and line, both mimicking some distant peak in the Japanese Alps while giving off a sense of some modern constructed sculpture made of welded plates of rusty steel.  Perhaps one of the most captivating features is how the base is raised where the wings of the form spread out creating a wonderful shadow line and a feeling of upward motion.  

This Iga-yaki henko form was made by Kojima Kenji several decades ago but shows his innovative sense of form, where little is out of bounds even when it strays from the traditional concepts of the region. In this case, the sharp lines, vivid surface and rich and intense firing have conspired with the potter to create something new within the Iga tradition and as with any tradition, a nudge now and again to move it into the future is quite frankly, never a bad thing.

SURFACE

This is another one of those pieces that is all about the surface. The simple form is the perfect bones for the use of the kohiki, crackle slip over which a thin layer of haiyu ash glaze is used to seal the surface and present a complete canvas. The landscape on this haiyu kohiki chawan by Kako Katsumi is emulated some distant and exotic place where texture reigns supreme and engulfs the rounded, functional form and there is even more to see in the interior.    

Kako Katsumi born in Kyoto and working in Tamba has blended the aesthetics of both locations to create a rather diverse and rich palette of forms, textures, glazes and ideas. Though seemingly simple in its constituent parts, this bowl is a wonderful, lyrical assemblage of clay, form, surface and fire which Kako has worked toward a mastery of where he is able to move back and forth between a diverse vocabulary of ideas and avenues. This chawan beyond being a tactile handful is just one example of what decades of testing, firing and experiments will get you where Kako Katsumi has certainly proved his mettle.