3 in 30 - 2001.08.11 Saturday
This week’s photos come to you from inside our house, though the subjects were created quite a distance from Matsubara-cho.
We have undoubtedly mentioned that Candy and Paul go up to Mount Takao to the studio of the pottery master Inoue Sensei. Paul has been practicing for a little over three years now with the master while Candy has been going up for a little over two years as well as taking ceramics her junior year in high school.
The blue glazed vase in the background was one of the first few pieces she made under Sensei's direction, while the cups with the same vibrant deep blue glaze are some more recent pieces.
The pieces are hand built with coils and maintain some of the rustic, natural qualities of the clay.
These two bowls are part of a series of about eight that Candy made with hand built coils. We only have three left as the rest were sold as commissioned pieces for her English teacher.
They are just the perfect size and shape for Japanese udon noodle soup. The calligraphic designs on the exterior of the bowls might be mistaken for Japanese characters, but they are simply action painting designs that are influenced by the Japanese calligraphic writing. Candy learned enough Japanese to write many characters, but chose to include strokes as design elements.
This last picture is of some of Paul's work. The brown plate with poured and dripped blue glaze is a simple sliced slab. This is one of ten, each one with a slightly different design.
The square cups were influenced by small cedar boxes now used for ceremonious sake drinking. The size of the boxes is the same volume as will hold a single serving of rice before it is cooked. It is also the standard serving of sake. The boxes have been bent on one corner to add some variety to the shape. Each side was then decorated with a different pattern. The chopstick holders actually predate the rest of these pieces by over twenty years. These were made when Paul was teaching middle school arts and crafts in western Colorado.
These plates are about to be used to serve our Saturday evening meal of grocery store sushi. You can see gari (pickled ginger slices), maguro (tuna), and ume maki (plum rolls). We get a hunger for sushi and the only thing we haven’t found within walking distance is a good inexpensive shushi shop. Of course, “good inexpensive shushi” is somewhat of an oxymoron.