Anagama kiln

Ryusei Arita
Ryusei is born in Japan, internationally renowned artist who now lives in California. I have personally known the artist for more than a decade and, in fact, have shown his work at my former gallery in Berkeley to great acclaim and success. Ryusei hand-built his wood fired kiln on 1994 in Elk Valley, Mendocino County on California's North Coast because this type of kiln cannot be situated within city limits. Most kilns are gas fired and temperature contolled while Anagama pottery is created in a wood-burning kiln that needs 24 hour around the clock monitoring and continual feeding.

Peter Voulkos selected Ryusei first as his apprentice, then as his assistant during the period of 1966-1978. The aforementioned teacher has an international following and was instrumental in making Ryusei the artist he is now.

Anagama kiln

Ryusei Arita
Ryusei is born in Japan, internationally renowned artist who now lives in California. I have personally known the artist for more than a decade and, in fact, have shown his work at my former gallery in Berkeley to great acclaim and success. Ryusei hand-built his wood fired kiln on 1994 in Elk Valley, Mendocino County on California's North Coast because this type of kiln cannot be situated within city limits. Most kilns are gas fired and temperature contolled while Anagama pottery is created in a wood-burning kiln that needs 24 hour around the clock monitoring and continual feeding.

Peter Voulkos selected Ryusei first as his apprentice, then as his assistant during the period of 1966-1978. The aforementioned teacher has an international following and was instrumental in making Ryusei the artist he is now.

Anagama kiln

Anagama kiln

Scott Parady

A new piece from Scott. This one has been pieced back together.

Scott Parady

Another great piece by Scott.  Similar feel to the "burst pouch" piece. 

Karl McDade - DVC - 6.jpg

Karl McDade - DVC - 6.jpg
Originally uploaded by clayglazepots

This is a very cool piece. Rustic industrial.

For more work: Karl McDade

Kin-tsugi

Kin-tsugi :

'Kin-tsugi' (gold joint) is one of traditional methods for restoring cracked ceramics. Instead of concealing damages, it adds a new look to broken treasures.

Karatsu Sake Cup
<4.0cm>
Momoyama Period (1573-1615)

Black Oribe Tea Bowl
Momoyama Period (1573-1615)

Hagi Tea Bowl
<15.9cm>
Early Edo Period (17th century)

From Gas Kimishima web site

More about Gas Kimishima

Daum Muesum: Peter Callas/Sparks

On October 6, 2007, the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art will open a solo exhibition by Peter Callas entitled, Sparks.

Charlemagne
2003, woodfired stoneware, 48″ x 24″ x 24″

From the Daum Museum website:
Peter Callas is a ceramic sculptor working in the tradition of abstract expressionism who has produced a repertoire of sculpted images grounded in the Zen aesthetic. He is one of the foremost sculptors working in clay utilizing the anagama kiln to produce large scale expressionist forms. For many years he fired the works of the preeminent American clay artist Peter Voulkos in his New Jersey kiln and traveled extensively worldwide with Voulkos as his assistant. Today he is considered to be one of America’s foremost authorities on the wood fire anagama kiln tradition. He has found his own voice influenced by Voukos but uniquely original. He has exhibited extensively in Korea, Japan and Norway and his works are in museum collections in those countries as well as in Hungary, Brazil and numerous American museums including the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art.

The exhibit runs through January 27, 2008. In conjunction with the opening there is a free two-day workshop with Peter that is open to the public: Friday, October 5th, 9:00 am-3:00pm and Saturday, October 6th, 9:00 am-12:00 pm.

A lecture by the artist is scheduled for Saturday, October 6th at 2:00 pm.

A 48-page full-color catalog is availablewith an Introduction by Curator Douglass Freed and an essay “Romancing the Mud” by Ronald Kuchta. To order a catalog, contact the museum.

Warren MacKenzie

Ceramic Bowls 

Minnesota-based Warren MacKenzie is a living legend. Not only has he been a very active potter for nearly 60 years, his perspective and teaching has touched and inspired many generations of contemporary potters. MacKenzie's early career was influenced by time spent working in England for British potter Bernard Leach. There he developed a high regard for folk pottery traditions, particularly those of Japan and Korea. Influenced by the ideals of the Arts and Crafts Movement, MacKenzie then began to create simple utilitarian pots. As decades passed, MacKenzie's dedication has been unwavering. He makes pots with integrity; understated and comforting. He tries to keep his prices within reach with the belief that having access too, and making use of handmade objects truly does add something to one's life. Mackenzie is still making work steadily in his Stillwater, MN studio, and is Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota.

For more work: Trax Gallery

Upcoming Show - Museum of Craft and Folk Art, San Francisco, CA
June 11, 2009 – September 13, 2009

For More Info see:Rochester Art Center

New Show Trax Gallery

16 STOKERS

Feb 23 - Mar 30
Trax Gallery

Opening Reception:
Saturday, February 23rd
5:00 - 7:00pm

Scott Parady, Trent Burkett, Owen Nelsen,
Tri Tran, Chris Sarley, Jules Stout,
Megan Mitchell, Andy Ruble, Eiko Toyooka, Jason Dunn, Darren Cockrell,
Michiko Kinoshita, Jeremy Nelson,
Paulius Rekasius, Stephen Eakin,
and Gabriel Gundling

Jiri Minarik

Shino work by Jiri Minarik

Born and raised in Czechoslovakia, I left to escape the 1968 Soviet invasion. This move started a journey, lasting several years, that took me from France to Germany and finally landing me in California, where I found a new home in the Bay Area.
Having received a graduate degree from UC Berkeley, I joined the corporate world and worked in a high tech company.
A few years later, however, my life took an unexpected twist when I accidentally set foot into a pottery studio and discovered clay. It was a love at first touch. Soon I immersed myself in the world of clay, taking art and pottery classes in the area. Shortly after that, in 1981, I quit my job and joined a ceramics coop studio, thus launching my second career as a potter.
The passion continues unabated, periodically renewed by the artistic and technical challenges and complexities of the field..Even though I spend a great deal of time experimenting , the field of ceramics is so vast that I know the best I will ever do, is just very gently scratch the surface. My most recent source of delight has been the discovery of Japanese Shino pottery.
I am constantly fascinated by the wonders of Shino glazes. While I had done quite a lot of decorative work prior to this, now I trust entirely the magic of fire to produce the final result. The outcome is always surprising and largely unpredictable, making you want to come back for more.

Styles of Japanese Pottery

Bizen-yaki – Produced in Okayama. Also called Inbe-yaki. A reddish-brown pottery, which is believed to have originated in the 6th century.

Hagi-yaki – Produced in Yamaguchi. Since it is burned at a relatively low temperature, it is fragile and transmits the warmth of its contents quickly.

Mino-yaki – Produced in Gifu. Includes Shino-yaki, Oribe-yaki, Setoguro, and Ki-Seto.

Raku-yaki – Produced in Kyoto. There is a proverb of the hierarchy of ceramic styles used for tea ceremony: 'First, Raku(-yaki). Second, Hagi. Third, Karatsu.'

Seto-yaki – Produced in Aichi. The most produced Japanese pottery in Japan. Sometimes, the term Seto-yaki (or Seto-mono) stands for all Japanese pottery.

Shigaraki-yaki – Produced in Shiga. One of the oldest styles in Japan. Famous for tanuki pottery pieces.

Tokoname-yaki – Produced in Aichi. Most are flower vases, rice bowls, teacup.

Japanese Pottery

Gotoh Museum

Water jar, named Yaburebukuro (Burst Pouch), Momoyama period (1573-1615),
Gotoh Museum Japan

Furuta Oribe and Oribe Ceramics
Born in 1543 or 1544, about the same time as the first arrival of Portuguese merchants in Japan, Furuta Oribe worked closely with the principal characters who shaped the political and artistic climate of sixteenth-century Japan. Like many other warlords of the time, he cultivated a keen interest in the tea ceremony, and in the vacuum created by his mentor Rikyu's death, Oribe's name became increasingly associated with tea. Rikyu had already begun to move away from dependence on Chinese and Korean tea utensils, preferring Japan's indigenous products. Oribe went a step further, intentionally cultivating the beauty of the imperfect. With its enormous cracks resulting from several weeks of firing at a high temperature, the famous water jar from the Iga kiln nicknamed "Burst Pouch," an Important Cultural Property in the Gotoh Museum, Tokyo, was considered by Oribe as a vessel endowed with a unique beauty.

Peter Callas

Peter Callas, born in Jersey City, N.J. in 1951, is an American potter who has been influenced by the Japanese woodfiring tradition, as well as the work of his friend and collaborator Peter Voulkos († 2002).

While these influences are apparent, Callas has developed his own unique style and made his mark on the woodfiring scene with pots as well as sculpture.

During his travels in Japan, Callas became particularly enamored with Anagama kilns, which he continues to use to this day. Pieces that are fired in this way have an ancient look about them, as if they had been sitting on the bottom of the sea for thousands of years.

Callas has exhibited extensively in the US as well as Japan and can be regarded as an established figure in Anagama woodfiring as well as a proponent of Abstract Expressionist ceramics, in league with Voulkos, Soldner and others.


Further reading: Peter Callas Gallery

Jeff Shapiro

Tea Bowl and Tea Cup

Perspective, Context, and Relativity

I ‘look’ with the intent of perceiving the artistic elements of what I am viewing rather than the intellectual dissection of information. To that end, I want to be moved and inspired, and respond to the potential of experiences I encounter.

I approach the process of making as a creative process giving myself the freedom to improvise, or run with an idea and see where it takes me, to keep the work alive and evolving. If I do not approach my work in this way, then the work stagnates and will precipitate the beginning of the end, which leads to a slow death.

I am interested in making my own work more fluid. This may be the result of softer clay, or more spontaneous forming techniques: less attention spent on technical perfection and more time spent on understanding the 'wholistic' approach to concept, material and process.

In the wood fire genre, the romanticism of the firing effects often dictates or overshadows the other aspects of the work. But actually, the material and forming process, as well as surface color and texture must be compatible. The firing alone cannot make up for weaknesses that may exist in either the clay character or forming process.

I respond to the beauty that exists in the imperfections of Nature; a sense that perfection as we know it does not necessarily equate with beauty, that in actuality, beauty exists. It is for us to behold, discover and expand our vision to appreciate a beauty that exists outside of a predetermined western perception.

A torn leaf, a twisted branch, a crack in a wall, it is all about perspective and perception.

When related directly to ceramics, I think of these terms as dimensions or layers. Even cracks in clay can be a dimension of beauty depending on how they relate to the other aspects and qualities of the piece in question.


For More Work: Jeff Shapiro and Contemporary American Ceramics

AKAR

Shiho Kanzaki

Shigaraki Tea bowls

Shiho Kanzaki's Works.

Shigaraki Ware.

All of my work is made by coil building.
In the end, I throw it from under to uper only onece at
one breath.
It is fired in an anagama kiln for over ten days which
produces a natural ash deposits.
Shigaraki ware is that it's fired on the shelve in the
chamber room.

Iga Ware

My work is made by coil building. In the end, I throw it
from under to uper only onece at one breath.
It is fired in an anagama kiln for over ten days which
produces a natural ash deposits.
The difference between Iga ware and Shigaraki ware is
that Shigaraki ware is fired in the chamber room, and
Iga ware is fired in the fire box.
The placement of the pieces in the kiln is very important
for the deposit of the ash.
The surrounding pieces create an environment for the
formation of a landscape of running glazes down the front
of the work.

For More work: Shiho Kanzaki

Chuck Hindes

Tea Bowl with Shino Glaze

ARTIST STATEMENT
The Japanese aesthetic, with reference to the tea ceremony and its use of unglazed ware, has been my main inspiration. The issue of gesture, movement, or animation has been important to my work for years. The plastic and gestural qualities of clay should be emphasized, not dulled or subdued with an opaque or transparent skin. For my work, the movement of the form is heightened with the orchestration of natural color created by wood firing.
I feel wood firing has enhanced my work by providing a palette of colors and surface textures that strengthen my forms visually, rather than cover them with a superficial skin. Wood firing draws the inherent colors in the clay to the surface where they form patterns. The intense interaction of fire and clay permanently etches the color into the pot. The resulting patterns of color and textures create a lasting visual record of the wood firing.

For More Work: The Art Spirt Gallery

James Coquia: Guinomi

James Coquia: Guinomi
Originally uploaded by ajdonald17

Paul A. McCoy: Bastard Shino Tea

Paul A. McCoy: Bastard Shino Tea
Originally uploaded by ajdonald17

James Coquia: Nezumi Shino Guinomi

James Coquia: Nezumi Shino Guinomi
Originally uploaded by ajdonald17

shino squared tea bowls

shino squared tea bowls
Originally uploaded by nesting.emily

chawan

chawan
Originally uploaded by binrock.mike

plate.jpg

plate.jpg
Originally uploaded by clayglazepots

Paul McCoy Winter.jpg

Paul McCoy Winter.jpg
Originally uploaded by clayglazepots

Karl McDade - DVC - 5.jpg

Karl McDade - DVC - 5.jpg
Originally uploaded by clayglazepots

Paul Chaleff 1984

Paul Chaleff 1984
Originally uploaded by clayglazepots

Susan Beiner Encrusted Field.jpg

Susan Beiner Encrusted Field.jpg
Originally uploaded by clayglazepots

Chuck Hindes

Chuck Hindes
Originally uploaded by clayglazepots

Karl Borgeson

Karl Borgeson
Originally uploaded by clayglazepots

Bede Clarke Tea Bowl

Bede Clarke Tea Bowl
Originally uploaded by clayglazepots

chawan shino

chawan shino
Originally uploaded by cory_Lum

woodfire tea bowl

woodfire tea bowl
Originally uploaded by artist101tw

Nice glaze. I like the line work.

Karl McDade

Karl McDade - DVC - 6.jpg
Originally uploaded by clayglazepots

Karl Mc Dade teaches at Diablo Valley Collage.

This piece is so dark, gritty and industrial. It is my new fav.

WildClay - From Flicker

焼締水差
Originally uploaded by wildclay

Another great tea ceremony piece.
Shigariaki?

WildClay - From Flicker

焼締徳利
Originally uploaded by wildclay

A nice piece - bizen?

Suzuki Goro

Suzuki Goro Chawan

His career started way back in his teens when he would only get about three hours of sleep each night because he wanted to practice on the wheel. His goal: to make 1,000 yunomi (tea cups) in one day. Only then, he felt, could one be called a craftsman. He had a stopwatch next to the wheel and after three years of practice got to the point where he could make a yunomi in 30 seconds! He reached the 1,000 mark and surpassed it, finally resting after making 1,250 yunomi in 10 hours. The man was on a clay mission.

He's since moved on to other forms, focusing his ceramic vision on Momoyama-inspired Mino wares which include Shino, Oribe, Setoguro, and Ki-Seto. Yet instead of making boring copies of the masterpieces, Suzuki has allowed himself, after years of discipline, a little freedom and, very importantly, a playful spirit (asobi-gokoro). He also has a feel for clay in his bones and listens quite well to the voices of the many different clays he uses.

Tokyo boasts a permanent display of Suzuki's work at Gallery Goro, which is, I think, the only gallery in Japan devoted to a single ceramic artist. Gallery Goro is a one-minute walk from the south exit of Okubo Station on the Sobu Line; open 12 p.m.-7 p.m. (closed Sunday, Monday and Thursday). For information, call (03) 5386-5056, or see the gallery's Japanese-language Web site at www.g-goro.com

From Robert Yellin E-YakiMono.net

For More Works: Vessels.jp

Peter Voulkos

Peter Voulkos Tea Bowl

From the earliest work out of Montana to the monumental late sculpture, Peter Voulkos (1924-2002) established himself as the leader of a revolution in ceramics. In her obituary for The New York Times, Roberta Smith wrote:

“Firmly grounded as a craftsman, Mr.Voulkos went on to reinvent ceramics as a meeting ground for painting and sculpture. During his 50-year career Mr. Voulkos was influential as a thinker, teacher and fearless innovator who followed a constantly changing course.”

For More Works: Frank Lloyd Gallery and Peter Voulkos

Daum Museum

Tomio Suzuki

Tomio Suzuki Aka-Shino Green Tea Chawan


"Making shino requires the same deductive reasoning that detectives use to solve a mystery. They eliminate variables one-by-one until they find the answer. For me, it's the same. I'll try a new method, fail, and try another until I've found one that works."
That's how Kyoto potter Tomio Suzuki describes the challenge of his work. "Shino", the name for the technique Mr. Suzuki works in, originated 450 years ago in Japan during the Momoyama Era. It is characterized by a simple glaze (pure feldspar and water) which is allowed to run down and crackle around the clay body.

Mr. Suzuki works primarily in three types of glazes: nezumi, aka, and a "basic" shino. The difference between them lies in the use of a red iron oxide-rich coloring agent (called onita) found in certain riverbed sediments in Japan. The gray color of nezumi shino (literally "mouse shino") forms when a white feldspar overglaze reacts with an underlying slip of onita.

The rust-red color of aka shino (left) is produced by mixing large amounts of the same coloring agent directly into the glaze. Conversely, the pink and orange hues found in Mr. Suzuki's basic shino (lower left) form without the use of a coloring agent and depend, instead, upon changing temperatures within the kiln.

The clay that is used is equally important. Called mogusa-tsuchi, this clay from Gifu Prefecture is unique in that it becomes light-textured and porous after long firings - a quality that is necessary in order for the glaze to shrink just tightly enough for the cracks and pinholes to develop.

For More Works: 2000 Cranes

Shino Pottery

The first Shino glaze was developed in Japan during the Momoyama period (1568-1600), in kilns in the Mino and Seto areas. The glaze, composed primarily of ground local feldspar and a small amount of local clay, produced a satiny white color. It was the first white glaze used in Japanese ceramics. Wares decorated with Shino were fired in the Ogama kilns used at that time. Ogama kilns were single-chambered kilns made from a trench in a hillside that was covered with an earthen roof. As the Ogama kilns were replaced by the multi-chambered Anagama kilns during the first decade of the 17th century, Shino was supplanted by the oribe glazes used in the newer kilns. Shino enjoyed a brief revival in the 19th century, but then faded into obscurity.
In the 1930s and 1940s, two Japanese potters, Toyozo Arakawa and Hajime Kato, developed the first modern Shino glaze by studying Monoyama Shino pots. Working independently, in 1974 Virginia Wirt, a student of Warren MacKenzie at the University of Minnesota, developed a glaze formula that also sought to imitate the historical exemplars. Her glaze, which added soda ash and spodumene to the base of feldspar and clays, was the first American Shino.
Shino has since become one of the more popular glazes in American pottery studios. Many variations have spawned from Wirt’s original formula. Although many different colorants and fluxes can be added, creating a wide range of effects, Shino glazes in America are all characterized by the use of soda ash and by a high ratio of alumina to silica. Under certain firing conditions, the soda ash causes carbon to be trapped in the glaze, creating the characteristic grey spots or patches on the glaze surface.
There is also a class of Shino glazes, called Crawling Shinos, which are intentionally formulated to exhibit a glaze defect know as crawling. These Shinos form small, regular spots of bare clay all over the surface of the pot, some going so far as to cause the glaze to bead up on the surface of the clay.
The origin of the term Shino is uncertain. It may be derived from “shiro” the Japanese word for “white.” Or it may refer to the tea master Shino Soshin (1444-1523). Kuroda and Murayama[2] refer to a text by Kanamori Tokusiu (1857) which states;
"Shino Soshin had a favorite white-glazed, 'shoe-shaped' bowl, imported from South Asia, which he used as a teabowl."[3]

Shino glaze

Shibuya Deishi

Oni-Hagi Chawan by Shibuya Deishi

I have one on his Oni-Hagi Winter Tea Bowls

It is one of my favorites, with a similar straw-ash glaze

Shibuya Deishi is one of the “elder statesmen” of the Hagi pottery tradition, being the Chairman of the Hagi Traditional Industrial (Handicrafts) Association for the last 20 years.

It is thought that the Oni–Hagi style is a representation of cherry trees in blossom and, although demons are thought of as something evil in the West, they are looked on as a useful ally to have in Japan, hence the name Oni.

Deishi, who works in Hagi City, throws all of chawan and yunomis using a Korean style kick wheel and these are then fired in his traditional wood-fired climbing kiln for many days. He have won many prizes for his work over the years, including the International Art Culture award in 1984 and continues to produce work to the high standard that he has set himself to this day.

For More Works: Studio-Pots  and MagoKorodo

Haku Maki

Title: Wan 14

Year:1990

Medium: Woodblock Print with embossing

Title: Collection 1

Year:1977

Medium: Woodblock Print with embossing

MAKI, Haku

Born: 1924 in Ibaragi Prefecture, died in 2000
Medium: Wood and Cement Block Relief

Maki was a versatile artist who often combined several techniques. He was first known for the use of Chinese characters or kanji. Starting with the original pictograph, he stylized the calligraphy into a bold statement, with an eye for its beauty and compositional possibilities. Maki often used cement on his woodblocks, which can be worked, when wet, into intriguing textures for embossing.

Later in his career, Maki shifted his focus to smaller works, with persimmons and other fruit, or ceramic teacups, bowls and bottles as the predominant themes. He still used the cement block technique allowing rich textural effects, creating a three-dimensional appearance.

In each of his nearly 2000 different prints, this modern Japanese master offers a very focused view of his subject. Backgrounds are of minor importance, and the subject dominates, whether kanji, persimmon, or ceramic.

He is one of the ten artists chosen for James Michener’s 1968 book, The Modern Japanese Print-- An Appreciation, and provided illustrations for Noah Brannen and William Elliott’s book, Festive Wine, a translation of ancient Japanese poems. In June 2007, Dan Tretiak published The Life and Works of Haku Maki examining his artistic themes over a long and distinguished career. This book was launched in conjunction with a special exhibit of 85 different Maki prints from all periods, held at the Ren Brown Collection in Bodega Bay. This outstanding book is now the authoritive source of information on Haku Maki.

Recent Acquisition - Scott Parady Ceramic Pottery

A Tea bowl and Ewer by Scott Parady

Purchased from Trax Gallery - Berkeley

Scott Parady is a functional cermacist highly respected for his ability to work from a range of small vessels to extremely large vessels. His work exudes a zen like quality of purity. His pots are chunky with earth materials such as shells, rocks, sand, and stones derived from the earths naturally occuring clay beds. His pieces represent him by appearing simple, yet in fact, they quietly reveal their depth. New treasures continue to appear as you own the piece. He built his Pope Valley anagama kiln, where he wood fires not only his own work but other artists as well. He is currrently a professor of ceramics at Sacramento State University. He recieved a B.A. from Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, Missouri. He recieved his M.A. from Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania. He has had many exhibitions from 1993-2005, and is continously progressing as an artist.

For More Works: Trax Gallery and Wood Fired Ceramics