TRIUMVIRATE

For good or bad, I must admit, I have a real “thing” for covered pots; covered, jars, mizusashi, boxes and what have you. I know I have mentioned this before but the mystery of what the interior looks like and “what's in the box” never cease to hold my attention and get my curiosity peaked to say the least. Though the Oxford definition of a box is; “a container with a flat base and sides, typically square or rectangular and having a lid”, a ceramic box can be so, so much more.  

Illustrated is one of those ceramic box forms that is so much more that the generally accepted idea of a box. This covered box has a wonderful form with perfect fit and finish as well as being well suited to function. Made by Bruce Cochrane, this was constructed out of multiple pieces of stoneware, dipped in a wonderfully visual and textured crackle slip and then wood fired, the interior has a liner glaze of Shino. Perhaps one of my favorite hidden features of this covered box form is the ever so slight hint of green glaze across the surface and where the glaze pooled a bit and to my eye, when was the addition of green anything but a bonus? Great box, great texture and what a wonderful surface, the ceramic triumvirate.

RAMBLING ACCOUNT

Fair warning, what follows is a concise (?) rambling account of a recent experience with a fellow collector that falls short in its telling compared to, say, Shakespeare but I will do my best to be as impartial as is possible also bearing in mind that right or wrong can reside somewhere in the middle. Less than a year ago, I started receiving messages from a beginning collector of Japanese pottery asking about different potters, signatures, the issues of fakes and other common issues. Over time the relationship became what I refer to as one of “internet friends”, we would share links, talk about recent acquisitions and best of all, we agreed to not compete against each other which worked quite well on both ends. Along with this “sharing is caring”, I sent along links of more than several pots that I was watching and waiting, well hoping would come down in price. Among these, this fellow collector decided to buy several of these pieces and to be fair, my thought process was, well, he was willing to pony up and spend the money at a time when I was not, best someone got the piece(s).      

Fast forward to recently when a pot I have been watching and this collector was aware of that fact (as I had originally sent him the link) for several months, finally went down in price but was on sale for only an additional 40 minutes. I contacted the other collector and told him I was going to purchase the pot unless I heard back to the contrary, he was online as I messaged him. Not hearing anything, we decided to go ahead and made the purchase and again informed the other collector, we had made the purchase, no subterfuge, we wanted to be above board. At this point, somehow cast as Othello’s Iago, the collector came back and used some choice language and finished his final message with, “I hope it arrives damaged”.      

Over the years I have certainly had a few dust-ups with fellow collectors over specific pieces, most were forgotten after the heat of the moment and of course, some were not. Collecting is fiercely personal, presumably driven by passion and to quite an extent, obsession but in all my years of collecting I have never had a fellow collector wish a pot arrive damaged*. Again, not painting myself as innocent in this tragic affair but the final statement and gesture really do have me wondering, how can someone really care or be passionate about an object and hope for its untimely demise, in my book, that is misguided at best and certainly more likely an unacceptable attitude of anyone who honestly values the hand made. (*As a post-script, I should mention the pot which caused this angst arrived, safe and sound, well packed and complete with a 20% off international shipping coupon, thank you very much.)       

Not to be confused with the pot in the ramble you may or not have made it through, here is a very cool blue heki-yu guinomi by Kimura Yoshiro with a flock of birds design making their way around the piece. The rich black decoration is just perfect against the deep, azure sea blue where the animated, whimsical nature of the piece would certainly add to the experience of use. Perfect blend of the old and the new and honestly, just a fun piece all around.

BIT OF SODA & COPPER

I am never disappointed with the sheer range of iron and copper in glazes and this is a perfect example where a bit of soda and copper make for an interesting surface. Though this is my tweaked version of a soda blue glaze, I didn’t come up with this all on my lonesome, I am honestly not sure where it came from, Linda Christianson, Linda Arbuckle or possibly Kirk Mangus way back in the 90s, but it works well and has been a staple glaze all this time.      

This soda blue hakeme teabowl stems from a series where a simple cylinder is thrown on the wheel and then somewhat inspired by the kutsu-gata concept, manipulated a bit before using a rasp and a simple disposable thin wedge to finish off the bowl. The bowl is then covered in a thin black slip inside and out before a thick white slip is applied and then textured, hakeme style. The diagonal pattern works well even on this ovoid form to play on a sense of movement. I am working on trying to figure out how this soda blue glaze works with various forms and ideas and suspect like my saffron, temmoku and Oribe glazes, there will be no shortage of attempts and failures leading to the occasional success, time will tell.

UNUSUAL EFFECT?

While I realize that an unusual effect or detail doesn’t make for a great pot, at the very least it does give you something to consider, think about or study and this area on the foot/ base of a chawan is just that. Looking at the kodai of a Kumano Kuroemon chawan what becomes immediately clear is that the iron that has been applied to this bowl has become very metallic and iridescent making for a rather engaging detail. I suspect this chawan had a hint of reduction during the intense wood firing at exactly the right time to reduce the elements just enough to create this alluring luster which I rarely (?) see on any pieces by Kumano. This metallic surface coupled with the normal clay color of the potter and the rich, soft, emerald green Shino covered in ash makes for a rather rich landscape at a place where it is mostly kept hidden at least while it is perched stationary on a shelf or desktop. However, when you take a moment to explore the chawan in hand going round and round, inside and out and finally to the base and foot this small treasure is exposed, a bit like a rainbow after a sudden shower.    

(Since this is not my pot, nor my photograph, this is all there is, no overall picture so please don’t ask.)

TO DO LIST

This is an old photo but I think it gets the message across, it speaks of what it is to be a Shino henko vase form by one of the leading potters of the region, Wakao Toshisada. I realize that not being a chawan, a vase doesn’t get all the same level of glamorous attention but the surface and wonky form of this piece certainly grabs my attention. The vertical form asks the eye to dart up and down the form where the uneven Nezumi-Shino battles between curdled grey and the iron that has made its way to the surface making the white decoration of grasses stand out across the pot, reaching upward again bringing the eye on a journey to the articulated shoulder and perfectly formed neck and mouth on what at its core could be considered a simple vessel.  As for Wakao Toshisada’s intent for this work, I will let this quote speak to that end; “Above all, I want to mix modern styles with traditional Japanese sense of beauty as it is presented in Nezumi-Shino.”. I think it pretty clear that he can check that goal off his list of things he had intended to do. 

WHAT'S THE HOLD UP

What’s the hold up, well the last two days were crazy days with workman here and then waiting on them to return, what should have taken a couple of hours became two days in a blink of an eye. To that end, pictured are the last holdouts, the last three pieces needed to fill the kiln and get on with the glaze firing. Though the two ring jars look glazed the same, they are not, one will be my saffron glaze with black iron accents, a total of three glazes, the other is Kuro-Oribe, three glazes and two washes in total. The bowl on the banding wheel is soda blue over combed slip with some accents that should show up nicely one fired, fingers crossed. The real slow going for a lot of my glazing is needing to wait a day after putting on the first base glaze, as you can imagine adding a day with a service interruption just adds more time and with me sort of dispossessed from my studio space and material to even carry out my list of glaze tests has dragged this firing off longer than expected. With any luck the weather will now cooperate and the temperatures steering clear of the 90s and I can get this fired and an order out the door.

Classic, medieval Ko-Iga style hanaire vase form by veteran potter, Kojima Kenji. Clearly based on some Iga archetype this sturdy vase was thrown and slightly manipulated to give the form a nice sense of gesture before adding thick and purposeful lugs and adding marks across the surface to further define the landscape of the piece. The front, entire shoulder and mouth are covered in ash from a dark ominous area where the vase sat in a charcoal bed to the green opaque glass that creates a distinct landscape reminiscent of medieval pottery masking its actual age. This was made and fired to recapture the feudal appearance of Ko-Iga ware at which it has clearly succeeded.  You can see more of this pot over on my Trocadero marketplace; 

https://www.trocadero.com/stores/albedo3studio/items/1506348/MEDIEVAL-KO-IGA-HANAIRE-BY-KOJIMA-KENJI-KK-MKIH9 

The FOURTH

Happy Fourth of July to all, cherish all of your freedoms, from the simplest to those that make us who we are.

CANNOLI COUNTRY

My wife was on a business trip recently which brought her smack-dab in the heart of cannoli country so she made her way to one of our favorite North-Eastern bakeries. Situated near Madison, CT is home of the cannoli truck and Meriano’s Bakery and no visit to the area is complete without bringing home at least a few special indulgences. Illustrated is the perfect ration of goodies, two chocolate covered cannoli with traditional filling along with a flakey and tasty lobster tails also with the standard cannoli filling and to finish things off two very rich and rewarding strawberry and cheese croissants. The group is displayed nicely on one of my terra cotta black and white slipped plates, roughly 14” across. No sooner are the pastries gone than I am already plotting another excuse to be in the area of Meriano’s, where the flavor never wanes and in fact I think may be better each and every visit.

QUICK REVISIT

This is just a quick revisit, a fly-by of a recent Seiji guinomi by Ono Kotaro. It is likely just me but this photo shows off the lines, furrows, curves and shadows that defines this little pot, crafted and conceived through years of experience and practice. It took me some time but I have learned there is as many ways to look at a pot as there are pots or maybe even stars in the sky.