mel jacobson on wed 19 apr 06
the show at caroline cheng's gallery was a nice success.
opening's are only two hours long, like 5-7 p.m. but the
crowd was very good. sales were brisk. caroline's gang did
a wonderful job setting the show...it was spectacular.
i was very pleased to be introduced to the `director` of the
`shanghai national museum`. he seemed to be very pleased with
the show. his reaction to the pots with blue/sapphire crystals
was very impressive. he told me that he only knew of three
of such pots, and they were `housed in tokyo and priceless...`
he did go home with a small package with one of those pots.
he told me he had `never expected in his life to own a temmoku
pot with blue stars`.
the director of ceramics from the national also attended and
spoke with me for at least a half hour after the show about
the glaze and what we had done. they now understand that
this project was not about making fake `jian`, but a study
done with american materials, with an american potters aesthetic
and skill and a california chemist/researcher that loves these pots
and has worked with this glaze for 40 years.
they were very pleased with what we had done. there are hundreds
of people trying to make fake antiques, and, they are junk.
that has never been our intent.
I was also pleased to meet with the director of the `national research
institute for chinese ceramics` in shanghai. (it is like acers times 12)
we talked of our study and he brought me together with two ph.d.
chemical engineers that are doing research on this jian style iron glaze.
dr. lin did her ph.d. paper on this glaze and is very excited to share
information and start a dialogue with us. she will take one of the gold
lustre pots and break it and study it with an electron microscope. she
is very intrigued.
as with all interviews with people that do not know your language,
and visa versa/ and you are working with an interpreter (po), one
may be fooled by politeness and folks not willing to tell you that
your work `sucks`. but, po seemed to do a wonderful job of getting
to the truth in these situations, and we are confident that those
chinese of professional status, understand our `iron saga` project
and respect it a great deal. that pleases us no end. the folks we are
dealing with are very hard to fool. they do know temmoku and iron
body pots.
dr. lin assured me that our speculation about the amount of iron in both
the body and the glaze is very correct, and that the pots were fired very
hot in an oxidized atmosphere. it was the saggers and oxidation that
kept the pots from sagging or warping at this extreme heat. in fact
it made them very strong. she was rather stunned that we had found
the key with `glaze layering`...she was of the opinion that it was only
one glaze...but, then, perhaps...hmmmmm. and then we all smiled a
great deal...`layers, hmmmmm. do you think? hmmmm, have to go back
to my desk...hmmmmm. maybe a slip glaze, hmmmm, i wonder.` she
was on her way to her desk as we left...hmmmmm.
so, the biggest part of the trip for me was `iron saga`. and we are very
pleased
with what happened. we have no idea where it will go from here, but
so far. not bad. and, in so many ways, this brings me full circle and
puts the project to rest for me.
mel
while at the research institute i went to the bathroom, stuck
my head out the window, found a 5 bar spot and called joe in
l.a. from my roamer cell phone...told him what was coming down
and how it was going....i could have turned off my phone and
heard him clear across the pacific ocean....he was excited.
and, without question, i am so pleased for joe to see this
forty years of love for temmoku glaze come to back to him.
"Luck is prepaid."
from: mel/minnetonka.mn.usa
website: http://my.pclink.com/~melpots3
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