Calligraphy Raku

This latest batch of raku-fired pieces were in-part inspired by the calligraphy painting of Bihou Yamauchi. Not long ago, I was given a fan decorated with her art as a gift from a well-respected Japanese bicycle builder, Shin-ichi Konno. This is just the first attempt at loosening up my painting style, and I hope that I can continue to improve, as this style is both fun and visually appealing.

Decorating With Overglaze

As I mentioned in the last post, I have been experimenting with overglaze. At right is one of my first successful pieces, a raku fired tea bowl with a plum flower motif. I used a tube of outlining formula Porcelaine 150 for the black, and painted the red with a Chinese calligraphy brush. I painted a red area for the logo (or the "chop") and scratched the details away with one of my long-time favorite tools, an X-acto knife.

I posted the other experiments with Porcelaine 150 on my Flickr page.

Raku Chawan

I've been learning quite a bit about Japanese pottery, and it's interesting that although I've known about raku firing ever since I became a ceramist, I knew nothing of Raku ware, or Raku-yaki (楽焼). You can read more in-depth articles about the history of the Raku family, and the origins of the tea ceremony for which the chawan (tea bowl) is designed for elsewhere, but I'll give a brief explanation...

During the late 1500's the Japanese elite highly prized unique and rustic ceramic forms for their tea ceremony. The great tea-master Sen no Rikyu collaborated with a potter named Chojiro, whose work was so admired by the emperor that he was awarded the name Raku, which means pleasure. Chojiro's method was to create his work by hand-modeling the clay without the use of a potter's wheel. And the firing method employed (which is the basis of western "raku" firing) involved a rapid heating of the pottery, culminating with the glowing hot pots being removed from a fiery kiln and rapidly cooled.

Over the winter holiday I hand-molded about 20 tea bowls (they are essentially pinch pots) and last week I fired the first batch of 10. I wanted to try to do things fairly traditionally, allowing the pots to air-cool, but my friend Junji ultimately convinced me to experiment with post-firing reduction for some of them. Although placing raku-fired pots in combustable materials like sawdust is a western technique, the results would likely appeal to eastern aesthetic, as the dark unglazed areas highlight the crackle of the glaze.

While some of these bowls will be given to friends and coworkers (my boss already claimed the one pictured above) the majority will be used and then given to students in my Manga Madness class when Junji and I teach them about the Japanese tea ceremony.

Faces

As it turns out, I did not sell my piece at Art All Night. I'm actually kind of happy in retrospect, because I really like this piece and don't mind seeing it hang around. In fact, one of my mentors has been encouraging me to sell less and keep more, so this is a step in the right direction in that respect.

Like the piece that sold at The Clay Place, this one is inspired by ancient Mexican stone sculptures.

Sold!

I was recently fortunate enough to be included in a group show at The Clay Place. The show, entitled Ceramic Gamut, featured work by the staff and students of The Manchester Craftsmen's Guild. Not only was I lucky enough to show my work, I sold a Raku fired piece. I have a sneaking suspicion that one of my mentor's bought it, but that's even more validating.

The piece is wheel-thrown and features a heavily carved surface depicting three faces. The inspiration was drawn from the ancient Mexican stone sculptures of the Guerrero region.