Lack of Tea Ceremony

A chawan (tea bowl) by John Baymore in the making


October 9, 2009
Carving the exterior profile of the kodai (foot)
with a kanna. 

I've just been browsing through the American potter John Baymore's studio photographs at all the Japanese style work he's been making. I met him in Japan at the ISCAEE conference for ceramics in Tokyo, as he was there with a group of his students from the New Hampshire Institute of Art, and demonstrated some of his techniques, such as throwing with coils to make pots taller, working with slip and texturing thrown pieces with rope. Since then, I've often used throwing with coils the way he showed in order to make really tall foot rings on my teapots, as this allows them to be attached better and flow into the form while retaining throwing lines across the whole. This opens a whole load of opportunities to carve into the foot ring, and make evenly sized feet and add cut outs to change the appearance of lift and how light they look, as well as the play of light around the base. Here's the demo:

Stiffening the rim ready for the coil using a blow torch

Measuring the length of coil that will be needed

Attaching the coil

Smoothing the coil onto the pot

Throwing the excess clay in the now extra thick rim into a neck

One of my coil thrown foot rings, cut into three feet and complete with carving and cut outs

November 29, 2009

A close up of the hollowing out process.
This is very exacting carving, since the
chawan has a somewhat specific weight
requirement (traditionally)....and that is
pretty darn light!

It takes a lot of fine "shaving" as the walls
get thinner and thinner. Not a fast process. 

It's really interesting watching a potter at work, but looking through all of John's photos makes me realise how very little I actually know about Japanese tea ceremony. I really want to see one performed so I can understand all of the tools and ceramics used as well as the process, but there's a lot more to it than that when it comes to making the pieces used. I've tried getting the university to bring someone in to do demonstrate one, but I've not heard anything lately, so I'll probably have to wait until I get to Japan now. My Japanese teacher was kind enough to offer to make matcha (powdered green tea) in class though, but I can't make it on the day she offered to do it! Crying shame. I have tried matcha once in an informal setting (not the proper ceremony). First, Japanese sweets are served, sometimes made with rice and sweetened using azuki beans or something else. The ones we had were shaped like flowers, and were hard and very biscuity. Once we'd eaten those, a lady came out with the frothy green matcha. She handed us each a tea bowl full of it, turning it round in her hands first to fully display the artwork, and then left us to drink it. Tea bowls have no handles, and are held in both hands, so as a result they are very tactile objects, and are perfect for showing off both symmetrical and asymmetrical designs as they are seen from all sides. Many of them are hand built and left with an unrefined finish and uneven rim as design features, but according to John, a smooth area is left in the base of the tea bowl, and a small indentation called a chadamari. This is because a bamboo whisk is used in the tea bowl to make matcha tea. Apparently the teabowls also traditionally have a specific weight they are meant to be, and many of them are made from solid blocks of clay that are then carved out in what is called "subtractive" forming. It's funny to think that, because at one point I was toying with a similar idea. I was thinking of throwing solid lumps of clay, only centring and adding a spiral to the upper surface, then cutting the lump into a square and hollowing it out from the side to make a square vessel with a spiral on the side.

October 8, 2009

Here is what these furo basically look
like when they are in "working" mode with
the chagama in place. Except, of course,
for the shrinkage that the unfired damp
clay will go thru. These units will be set up
for either charcoal use, or for electric heaters. 

Apart from the chawan, I found these furo John is making for tea ceremony. I'd also not come across furo before, and wikipedia helpfully informs me it's a Japanese bath. I think not. Apparently it's a portable brazier for heating the tea kettle. I find this surprising as generally ceramics hates extreme uneven heating, such that it can be used in an over but not on a hob (I learnt this the hard way when particularly tired once. I won't be cutting corners again in a hurry!).





I really like the idea of decorating using finger marks on this furo, as it really suits the concept of sabi about rustic simplicity, and being true to a materials property and making process. I already strive to leave the throwing marks on my pots in pursuit of this, but so far haven't taken this idea further, and would like to.

October 17, 2009

The completed flower decorated furo ready to dry.
 The color of the slip is far more pronounced in this stage
than it will be when fired (yakishime). It is however
quite a different texture from the background body,
and the petals have a bit of relief. 

October 17, 2009

Furo are usually deliberately a bit "plain" to
not interfere with the other wares in the
tearoom, however sometimes I do add
some light decoration. Here simple flower
patterns are being painted on in slip with
my finger. This particular furo will get
fired yakishime (unglazed). 

Finally I was looking at this dish. Hakeme slip is yet another thing I'm unfamiliar with, but I may have seen it before. John was using a long bristled brush to create streaky patterns in the slip. I don't much like the finished piece, but I love the textures and edges created by the hakeme. The fine pattern, varying thickness, and trailing off of the strokes gives it a rather delicate, ethereal feel comparatively to the thrown body, like it's there, but it almost isn't. The scraped back flowers add to this effect, and I think it would look good layered maybe with screen print, but overlapping, not filling in or fitting. I also quite like the shavings adding yet another texture in the photo below, that makes three contrasting textures, and visually three is a very attractive number :)

October 24, 2009

Preparing a large bowl for some flower
patterns. Here carving the general
shape of the flower thru the hakeme
white sip pattern to level the surface. 

October 24, 2009

The bowl with three colors of slips
(copper, cobalt, and iron) painted onto the
flower shapes, plus a bit of scraffito
thru the slips on the flowers.
The background is hakeme white.