Posts Tagged ‘Pottery’
If I were a potter
I have always imagined myself to be a potter.
Couple decades ago, I had access to a wheel on and off for a few years. It turned out that I could only ever make heavy bottom pottery. By that I don’t mean pear shaped, I mean clay that lays heavy at the bottom of the pot. And my lump of clay was the master of me. If I wanted the clay to turn into a vase, it would turn into a bowl. When I wanted a bowl, it would want to be a mug. At first it was frustrating, then it became amusing. How often do you get your life lessons on the wheel? Failure on the potter’s wheel was my first experience with failure. Up until that time, I had assume that practice makes one perfect. No, no, no…. Practice is just that, at best, it is a form of meditation. Eventually this protagonist learned that she is good at a couple of things and bad at a very large number of things. She is good at not letting failure come in the way of passion. She also has a great imagination that is not limited by reality.
In that imagination, I own a studio in the Napa valley.
Japanese pottery
There is traditional pottery that comes with amazing glazes and hand painted artwork and then there is the Japanese minimalist aesthetic. Both extremes are stunning. Former is relatively easy to find in Tokyo – every guidebook will provide a pointer or two. The later on the other hand was serendipity for us.
 Yumiko Iihoshi Porcelain: Yumiko Yoshihoshi is the artist behind the line and is relatively recent graduate of Kyoto Saga College of Art and Ceramics Degree. As far as I could decipher from auto translation, her designs use both industrial production and hard craft. The pieces are mass produced but hand glazed. |
 Fine workmanship, delicate pieces, and beautiful organic but minimalist shapes. The Harajuku store is in a strange building called Co-op Olympia. It is a renovated old building with cavernous hotel like walkways. It took us two trips to locate. The shop is is one of the suites. |
The traditional designs are explosion of colors or textures. Absolutely delightful. And if you have taken a class or two of pottery, you will appreciate the art even more so.
 Overall, the size of the piece and prices are not very correlated. Japanese are fond of small and beautiful objects and there are many delicate small dishes for serving kaiseki style food. These are not dishwasher friendly, no two pieces are exactly alike. What you typically get is beautiful shapes, textures, and glazes and sometimes, fine hand painting. |
 A beautiful sake pot with two serving cups. |
Locomotoring 