Richard Mahaffey on thu 17 jun 04
I wondered what pray tell was a brown Celadon. Now I am an Old Fart
and I have been making pots for over 35 years and been around Chinese
and Japanese pots even longer due to an antique dealer father. Well I
looked at the Coleman pieces on the website offered and saw a celadon
glaze that had been oxidized. Looked to be above 2% iron content (My
.5% celadon looks more yellow than brown). The way we learned it a
Celadon glaze was one that had between .25% and 4% Iron in a Limestone
base that was fired in reduction to produce color ranging from blue to
blue-green to green to almost olive green (in the higher concentrations
of iron). When the same glaze was oxidized it was not considered a
celadon. The name celadon refers to the fired glaze, reduction fired
glaze I should say, not the glaze fired in any atmosphere. In the
studio we simply call it an oxidized celadon that way everyone knows
what it is and how to replicate the look.
To me the phrase "Brown Celadon" sounds much like "Green Copper Red".
I think it is a good thing that the internet allows us to view photos
because soon no one will know what anyone else is saying. Brown
Celadon seems like a short cut or easy way to add cachet to an oxidized
limestone glaze that contains less than 4% iron. There are a few
potters out there who would deliberately miss lead folks into believing
that they know something that no one else knows, just look carefully at
all of the kiln ads out there and you will see what I mean.
Anyway, if we start changing the meaning of our terms then we will find
that this listserv which is a great conduit for exchanging information
will be of less and less value as time goes by.
Now, none of the above makes the pots or glaze in question any less
beautiful so if you think that is what I am talking about please
re-read.
Rant off.
Rick Mahaffey
Finally on summer vacation.
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