Tom Zwierlein Online

Mon August 1, 2005

Who the heck is Bill Buckner?

Buckner - I | Buckner - II | Buckner - III

Hey everybody,
Sorry for the slow post, I was working on the car port project, and had to finish. It was exhausting, but the "tilt out" is now enclosed. It is currently being used as my new studio, and I am making work tomorrow, yeah, it's been a while. I know this show is long, but I hope you enjoy it. Lot's to talk about....on my way to Santa Fe, but I will try to get the Penryn Show to Michael before I go. Rick Berman and Jerry and I are doing a raku workshop at the Georgia Perspective Show the end of August. Watkinsville Ga. August 25. Should be fun, try to come. Details on that soon.
z

Sat June 25, 2005

Rosanjin

Rosanjin - I | Rosanjin - II | Rosanjin - III

Hey everybody, It's been a fast start to the summer, sorry for the delay in posting, but Michael Alexander and I flew to California, Penryn Workshop, and we have just returned. We will post that show soon. Also we have a show for you with Bill Buckner of Atlanta. I hope you find the Rosanjin show interesting, I had a great time doing more research on him. It seems the more I find the more there is. I was talking with a friend in Cali., I think he put it as it is. We all loved Hamada, and Leach...... well we respect him for what he was. But for me, Rosanjin was a far more interesting artist, and he gave us so much. The Rosanjin and Noguchi connection will be comming soon. I hope you enjoy the show.
z

In this way, plain slabs of clay swiftly became a basin, a flat serving dish, a rectangular tray. Huffing with his distinctive cough-like breaths, Rosanjin completed a multitude of pieces as we watched. All of these vessels were made wtihout usinjg a potter's wheel or even a bamboo blade, simply with his hand.

I never dreamed I would end up this way, but here I am by God, a potter. I must be the first one who ever got started making his own dishes in order to enjoy his meals more. No one but the most dedicated food lover would go to such an extreme. By now I have made hundreds, thousands, no tens of thousands of vessels.

This description of a voracious appetite for sherds matches the stories told of Rosanjin's unquenchable thirst for beer or his lust for fine food. Rosanjin's unusual career as a producer of pottery (hardly a "potter" by the standard definition) entailed a similar process of consumption: contracting a sequence of professional potters, learning their repertories of skills, and incorporating them into his own eclectic production.

(from Isamu Noguchi and Modern Japanese Ceramics)

Yanagi, Leach, Elise Grilli, and Sydney Cardozo, were meeting to form a list of potters considered to be the best in Japan. Both Yanagi and Leach left Rosanjin off their lists. When asked why Leach replied that could be easily explained "Rosanjin is simply not a potter" are the words I so clearly remember. What he meant, of course, was that he, along with Hamada, Yanagi, and the others involved in the folk craft revival, were concerned with the development of skills involving throwing on the wheel, glazing, firing, and the like to such a degree that the potter could then devote himself willy-nilly to his creative urges.

Rosanjin, while demanding the same discipline and training of those who worked with and for him, is roundly criticized for the way he bent others' talents to his own genius, capitalizing on their particular strengths to fortify his own position.

(from The Art of Rosanjin)

Wed May 18, 2005

Shino

Hey everybody I hope you enjoy this show on Shino. One correction I noticed, Rosanjin owned 35 hundred pots in his collection. I said something else... ;0
z

Possible Time Line for Shino Ware

"It may have been adapted from the name and work of Shino Soshin (1444-1523)-an admired pioneer of incense and a reputed tea master who is believed to have owned an inspiring white Chinese tea bowl."

"Shino flourished in the midst of ancient kiln sites in the hills of Mino and Seto, near Nagoya, and became one of the enduring achievements of the Momoyama period (1568-1600). That period was a time characterized by urbane individuals of high talent and ability, whose cultivation of an appreciation for aesthetic concerns integrated technology and connoisseurship. It was also an important time of nurturing the tea, and marked the rise of notable tea masters including Furuta Oribe (1544-1615)"

"It was only in the twentieth century that potters Toyozo Arakawa (1894-1985) and Hajime Kato(1900-1968) made significant discoveries and achievements in re-exploring Shino. Still, the rudimentary component of the Shino glaze remained as elusive to potters as did its character. A break through was needed, one that would both rediscover and redifine Shino. The breakthrough came half a world away from the Japanese villages of Mino and Seto; it occurred in America, in Minnesotaâ€¦"

The above quote is from the essay in American Shino, The Glaze Of A Thousand Faces, written by John Driscoll Ph.D.

Some of My Favorite Shino Related Books and Articles:

1974	Herbert Sanders "The World of Japanese Ceramics"
	Susan Peterson "Hamada"
1982	Hiroshi Mizuo "Famous Ceramics of Japan 3 folk Kilns I"
1987	Cardozo/Masaaki "The Art of Rosanjin"
1994	Japan Society "Modern Japanese Ceramics in American Collections"
1995	Apostolos/Cappadona Isamu Noguchi Essays and Conversations
2004	Lester Richter "American Shino"
	Louise Allison Cort The Studio Potter/December volume 33/ "Crawling Through Mud: Avant-Garde Ceramics in Postwar Japan"
2005	Malcolm Davis "Endless Variations"
	Ceramics Monthly/April 2005/Jim Wayneâ€™s "Saggar-Fired Shino Teaware"

Wed May 4, 2005

The Big Show

In the car | Callanwolde-Part I | Callanwolde-Part II

Hey everybody, a reminder that currently our podcasts are large files and if you have dial up internet, you might try downloading overnight. We will attempt some fixes for this very soon, and will let you know what to do. Unfortunately it's the only way we can do it right now. I recently sprung for high speed cable Internet and it is amazing. Super fast downloads.

Tom Collins visit was awesome, he came in on Monday evening, we glazed and loaded a gas kiln on Tuesday, fired on Wednesday. Thursday was the big day, we threw 350 lbs of clay for The Lovett School students, about 1400 of them. Had a reception with the freshly fired pots and Tom taught my Callanwolde evening class. Friday he trimmed and finished all of the ware he made during the week. It was exhausting, but really great.

Sound scenes:

In the car - Tom and I talking about a little of Tom's past. And "The California Chimney".
Callanwolde - Tom came to my Callanwolde class on Thursday night. This sound tour is him throwing and talking. As always, he has jacked the wheel up on cement blocks so he can throw standing. There is always a lot of conversation about Voulkos, but he was a very influential man to us.

Credits:

Perry McIntyre for shooting the arts festival
Karey Walter catching me trimming
Lansing Lee for the music

Tue April 26, 2005

Woodfire!

Woodfire Podcast - Part A | Woodfire Podcast - Part B

Hey everybody, it's been a lot of fun, a lot of hard work, (we won't mention the money) ... but we're there!

Michael Alexander and I will continue to tweak the show until we get it right or quietly go back to making pots. So hang in there with us, and I promise this thing will grow in to what we believe to be a valuable podcast, about clay.

There will be some on-site interviews, starting with Tom Collin's visit to Atlanta, this past week. (And we'll be posting that show next week) Posts on new interests in the pottery world, including equipment, books and magazine articles. We'll point you to interesting places, and bring you with us to places like the Penryn workshop in Penryn, California, this June. We'll be recording and posting from Penryn! And we now have the equipment to do phone interviews. Thanks to Guitar Center, Micro Center, Radio Shack, Best Buys, and Apple Computer, for the gear.

We're excited about the potential of communication with this and welcome your feed back. E-mail us at tz@tomzwierlein.com And thanks for listening to the show.

Pictures at the right, pots I've made for the wood firing. One in California, one in Flagstaff, one in Virginia. That's Jason Hess with the Flagstack, and David Norton with the Potterosastack