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traditional japanese glaze aesthetics

updated sun 19 jun 05

 

Lee Love on tue 14 jun 05


Hi Pete. Didn't see your original post here. :-)

I assure you, nobody wants disrespectful, anonymous comments at their
webpage. Nobody takes them seriously. I will pretend they never happened.

Thanks for showing yourself. In response, I'll explain traditional
Japanese glazes to you a little bit.

For others, this is the glaze Pete is talking about:

http://hankos.blogspot.com/2005/04/this-came-out-of-12-hour-wood-firing.html

You have never seen traditional shinos before? On shino and other kinds
of tea ware, certain kinds of features that are considered "faults" in
commercial glazes are desirable. Crazing, crawling and pinholing is
desireable, if it is of a certain kind. Not any fault is desirable. It
has to fit the work. There is a big problem with people confusing
sloppiness or a lack of skill with liveliness and life in a pot. Certain
flaws fit the tea aesthetic, because the enhance the beauty of the work
by being slightly imperfect.

The pinholing on the pots in the photos I posted of my new shino, has
taken some experimentation to achieve. I am excited about the new glaze.
I have been testing for 2 years to figure it out. I had been doing
recalculations, converting American to Japanese materials without
getting the shino I was looking for. I switched to lineblending korean
kaolin and neph sye with additions of lithium (inspired by some of the
flashing slips in John Britt's glaze book) and that worked and I got
desirable pinholing to boot!

I put up some photo images for you Pete:

http://shinoglaze.blogspot.com/

Other informative links:

http://ceramic-materials.com/cermat/glossary/s.html

Shinos crawl, craze, and pinhole in ways that are often decorative and
pleasing.

http://www.e-yakimono.net/html/kato-kozo-css.html

It all helps to create Shino ware's distinctive whitish glaze
(ash/feldspar), and equally distinctive pinhole texture, referred to as
"citron skin" by tea masters.


--
李 Lee Love 大
愛      鱗
in Mashiko, Japan http://mashiko.org
http://hankos.blogspot.com/ Visual Bookmarks
http://ikiru.blogspot.com/ Zen and Craft

Earl Brunner on tue 14 jun 05


Lee, I really like the pots on your woodfire blog. Particularly the one of
your with the Irabo glaze and the blue glass on the lugs, Nice pot.

Earl Brunner
Las Vegas, NV

-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG] On Behalf Of Lee Love
Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2005 7:22 AM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Traditional Japanese Glaze Aesthetics

Hi Pete. Didn't see your original post here. :-)

I assure you, nobody wants disrespectful, anonymous comments at their
webpage. Nobody takes them seriously. I will pretend they never happened.

Thanks for showing yourself. In response, I'll explain traditional
Japanese glazes to you a little bit.

For others, this is the glaze Pete is talking about:

http://hankos.blogspot.com/2005/04/this-came-out-of-12-hour-wood-firing.html

Lee Love on wed 15 jun 05


Earl Brunner wrote:

>Lee, I really like the pots on your woodfire blog. Particularly the one of
>your with the Irabo glaze and the blue glass on the lugs, Nice pot.
>
>
Thanks Earl. The Irabo is sort of at the opposite end of the spectrum
from the high alumina shinos. They are so "mobile" that everything is
smoothed over. They are easier to achieve, the main trick being knowing
how to apply them so they don't stick the pot to the shelf.

I learned how to glazes these during my apprenticeship: A thin coat is
put on the bottom half and a normal coat on the top half. My teacher
would thin the glaze for the bottom coat, but I found that brushing a
single coat on the bottom was equal to a thin dipped coat. I then dip
the top. This skips having to take water out of the glaze an put it
back. And because this glaze likes to move, it hides any brushmarks. I
also always put them on wadded shells.

--
李 Lee Love 大
愛      鱗
in Mashiko, Japan http://mashiko.org
http://hankos.blogspot.com/ Visual Bookmarks
http://ikiru.blogspot.com/ Zen and Craft

"With Humans it's what's here (he points to his heart) that makes the difference. If you don't have it in the heart, nothing you make will make a difference." ~~Bernard Leach~~ (As told to Dean Schwarz)

Craig Martell on fri 17 jun 05


Lee was saying:
>There is a big problem with people confusing
>sloppiness or a lack of skill with liveliness and life in a pot. Certain
>flaws fit the tea aesthetic, because the enhance the beauty of the work
>by being slightly imperfect.

Hello Lee and others:

Yes, this is a problem for people who haven't experienced the aesthetics of
shinos and other types of ware that actually defy industrial, technical
perfection. I'm always edified by the work of potters that use textural
crawling, crazing, and pinholing to enhance the work. It takes some vision
and experience to see this stuff and to use it well but when it's done by
potters who have the courage and vision to use this kind of aesthetic it's
very appealing. Well, to me anyway.

I really like the section on shinos in Ian Currie's book, Stoneware Glazes
A Systematic Approach, where he talks about shinos being the antithesis of
the "machine aesthetic". It's a great read.

regards, Craig Martell Hopewell, Oregon

Lee Love on sat 18 jun 05


Craig Martell wrote:

> I really like the section on shinos in Ian Currie's book, Stoneware
> Glazes
> A Systematic Approach, where he talks about shinos being the
> antithesis of
> the "machine aesthetic". It's a great read.

I have been meaning to check Currie's book out.

I have some hybrid Shinos working now (not exactly American, not exactly
Japanese) and have come to think I need to change my forms that I will
be using it on.. I am making heftier forms with substantial feet, trying
to get the feel of the original ware. I don't want to change clay but
will keep doing inlay or hakame on Mashiko clay, either with ocher inlay
or hakame or ocher added to the clay with white inlay and white hakame slip.

I have a new source of Mashiko nami clay and am testing two blends after
my initial tests. The Mashiko out of the grounds is best at cone 8 to 9
orton (about cone 7 seger.) Adding 10% keibushi (refractory ball clay)
brings the alumina level up to Shigaraki nami levels. The first new test
has 10% keibushi added, the second one is 3 parts Mashiko nami, 1 part
Mashiko Ocher and .5 parts keibushi. I am wedging soft portions of these
to get the mix. I found that the ocher clay will bloat at cone 9 orton.
It might work well as a terracotta for the woodfired Jaspe earthenware I
want to try. I am thinking it might be a line I can sell at a lower
price at the pottery festival, while keeping the quality up.

--
Lee Love
in Mashiko, Japan http://mashiko.org
http://hankos.blogspot.com/ Visual Bookmarks
http://ikiru.blogspot.com/ Zen and Craft

About the best pots:

"They are not necessarily amenable to intellectual analysis,
and, in fact, that analysis can destroy a person's real
appreciation and understanding of a piece."
                
                 -- Warren MacKenzie