“...I find it really enriching to make pots which people are using and which
they come in contact with, not only visually in their homes but tactilely --
when they pick them up, when they wash them after dinner, and so on and so forth.”

Warren Mackenzie, from an interview with Robert Silbermanm 2002

Introduction

Chawan

Guinomi

Tokkuri

Bizen

Hagi

Oribe

Shino

More Japanese

American Bowls

Other

Acoma

 

Figure 1: Porcelin translucent tea bowl by Gary Holt, Berkeley CA. He has been doing this style for a few years now, but this was one of the first ones.

Figure 2: Salt glaze, John Chambers, Sebastopol, CA. You can see his work at the Ren Brown Gallery in Bodega Bay. The gallery also features fine Japanese prints.

Figure 3: Bonita Cohn of San Francisco. I believe that she told me that she dug this clay in the San Francisco area.

Figure 4: Bonita Cohn of San Francisco.

Figure 5: Warren MacKenzie from Stillwater MN. This bowl is in shino style.

Figure 6: The woman that made this is from Southern CA but I cannot locate the reciept. Hopefully later.

Figure 7: I don’t know the name of the potter, and when I bought it the sales clerk mentioned that he had moved away. I have the name on the reciept, somewhere. The bowl feels very light when you pick it up.

Figure 8: iI don’t know the name of the potter, and I bought it from the seconds bin. However I like the way it looks. The bowl feels a little heavy when you pick it up.

Figure 8: Gary Holt, Berkeley CA

Figure 9: Mishi Najima. I got two bowls by this person when I first came to the bay area in 1980, but I have never seen more. I used to eat lunch from this bowl often when I had an office.

Figure 10: Salt glaze, John Chambers, Sebastopol, CA

 

Figure 11: Spangler, Berkeley CA.There are two potters with the name Spangler John and Ross. I don’t know which one this is but these three bowls are very similar and I got them in three different places, all on sale.

Figure 12: Spangler, Berkeley CA

Figure 13: Spangler, Berkele CA. On the bottom of this one, besides the name and the year, inscribed in the clay are the words “I’m back.”

Figure 14: Mishi Najima

American bowls don’t usually come with a pedigree like Japanese do, and niether do they come with a box. I got these from various places, some even from the “seconds bin.” American bowls are different in that they were not made specifically for tea. Of course anything can be used for tea. And if a pot is nice, it can be appreciated, especially by holding it and using it.

The Ido style of Japanese chawan originally were cheap Korean rice bowls in which the Japanese tea masters found beauty in their simplicity. There are plenty of American potters, probably very near where you live and you can see their work everywhere if you take the time.

Personally I prefer functional pottery, that was the original purpose of pottery. Pottery orginated to meet a needfof people but it became important when potters found ways to make the experience meaningful rahter than just functional.

I believe that nonfunctional pottery really has no place except if its part of a commercial art, i.e. design situation where the non-functional pottery is used by the designer because it best communicates the strategic message of the client or its soley a Fine Art statement. However a Fine Art a statement is far below funcitonal and its usually just another piece of junk we do not need in out society.

Pottery is best appreciated by using it, eating, drinking, storing, not just looking at it.

What we don't have that is different from the Japanese and the Peublo indians (are they US Americans? they had the tradition before there was an US America) is a business place in society for the individual potter to be creating functional pottery. The European tradition wasmore like a large business coporation such as Limoge, Wedgewood, etc, making table ware or artistic bric-a- brac. In the US there was also atradition of craft in making pottery containers as cmmercia lpackaging.

After a year of college I took a leave and worked for an antique dealer, Roberto’s Antiques, on the Post Road in Darien, owned by Bob Escott. Bob did not have much formal education, was self taught and had a very successful antique business. Often I went with him to someone's home to look at antiques.Often he might make an offer to buy, however itt would not be unusual for him to to just walk around the house and pick up beautiful things, hold them, move his hands touching them, just to feel the essence of the thing created by an artist.

I find it interesting that when I am at pottery sales, I find people buyuing a safe Christma present you can buy someone, or birthday present,and it shows they have a better taste than buying a store bought present. But some times when I get into a conversation I find that most people think, why would I buy something (for myself) that is just going to break if I use it. Plastic or mass produced is easier, cheaper and better. Why buy a set of plates (for myself) where no two are alike?

There are a lot of American potters and I strongly urge people to support local potters. Find some potters that you like and build a collection of pottery, but don't forget to use it. Use everyday, enjoy it and when it breaks, its ok, just buy another one. Buy from the seconds bin and when it breaks you might care less.

It doesn’t matter if its different, not the same size, not the same color.Seeing it and touching it makes eating and washing dishes more enjoyable. Use it and enjoy it.