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How Is The Outside Surface Made - Shino Fresh Water Jar By Suzuki Tomio


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While magnesium carbonate does produce crawling, in the case of shinos it's the high alumina that's responsible. Have a look at where the shino glazes lie on the SiO2 : Al2O3 chart on Glazy, compared to general glazes. This also shows that shinos have a much higher ratio of alkali to alkaline earth fluxes than general glazes.

 

Chilly, I'm guessing that what looks like a crack is just where the glaze cracked on the inside when it dried, and which didn't heal during the firing since the molten glaze is so stiff.

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lol chilly. here is more http://www.trocadero.com/stores/Dabido/items/1128447/Kagayo-Shino-Shuhai-by-Suzuki-Tomio/enlargement10

 

making - i was thinking. fire plays a big part too. wonder if he fires for 10 days or more.

 

chilly Suzuki Tomio is a very highly respected in Japan. he specializes only in Shino glazes. he looses a lot and only keeps part of his firing. i guess this could be his 101st pot that was actually successful and did not fail. 

 

i like to call this a piece of art that is also functional. 

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THANK YOU Bruce!!! Pottery and poetry! oh my! just up my alley. off to discover another artist.

 

quickly perused the book. after my finals i will be free to read in detail. 

 

the reason why i asked was because the little write up talked about Suzuki Tomio preparing the clay body. 

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Guest JBaymore

Yes... this is Japanese Shino glaze and Japanese Shino CLAY BODY (important part) work.

 

Traditional Japanese Shino quite often does not look all that much like American Shino.  I have on many occasions taken a piece of actual Japanese Shino work out from my collection in workshops and classes I'm giving and asked the participants to identify what Japanese pottery type it is... and they have missed that it is Shino ware. 

 

American Shino, like American Raku, tends to be a bit more “in your face†and dramatic than the Japanese source variety.  Japanese Shino is often more understated, particularly the older pieces.  American Shino often has warm-ish overall tones; peach and reddish-brown.  Japanese Shino is more typically generally an overall white, with accents of “fire color†iron red on the thin spots and around the pinholes.  Japanese Shino tends to pinhole more than crawl, while American Shino tends to crawl more than pinhole.  Japanese Shino does not tend to carbon trap, while American Shino does. Some excessively.  There is a variety of Japanese Shino called Nezume Shino (Mouse Gray Shino) that does not look like American Shinos at all.  There is also a variety Japanese E Shino, (Picture Shino) that has iron brushwork under the feldspathic white glaze.

 

Shino glaze in Japan is more or less.... one specific feldspathic rock.  VERY difficult to work with. 

 

While glaze recipes vary from Japanese shino ware potter to potter, when I was in Seto/Tajimi back in 1996 (home of traditional Shinos) a shino ware potter told me his specific glaze recipe.  It was 90% of the specific shino feldspthic rock and 10% of a specific kaolin.  This was mixed with water and a seaweed emulsion as a binder.  The rock itself is a high potassium and slightly less high sodium containing (hence alkaline fluxed) feldspathic blend.  For fluxes, it is sourcing mainly alkalis (not including lithium) in a non-soluble form, unlike American Shinos … that usually depend heavily on soluble soda ash to get the alkali content up.  Between the alumina in the rock and the kaolin,… the alumina content is quite high…. giving a very stiff melt with high surface tension in the molten state.

 

Key points were made that the rock is processed via a stamper mill… and not further beneficiated via milling.  This results in tiny flake like particles with thin edges, not the rounded lumps that our commercial raw materials are.  The second key point he made was the firing cycle.  L….O…..N…..G and to low end point temperature.  Using heat work not temperature to cause the glaze to first sinter… and then  melt.  The sintering happens at the tiny thin edges of the particle flakes.  He was firing for almost 100 hours.  Long cooling cycle also.

 

The rock that forms the core Japanese Shino glaze has a chemical composition that is NOT like what has evolved as "American Shino".  The work of Virginia Wirt back in the 60's actually kind of sent things off on a tangent in America and the West.... when she added lithium oxide sourced via the raw material spodumene.  No lithium is in the Japanese stone.  Then Malcolm Davis' work with carbon trap (considered a clear DEFECT in Japan) further sent American Shino in a different direction.

 

Another KEY point is the clay body that Japanese Shino is normally fired upon.  It is a white-ish NON-VITREOUS coarse sandy clay body.  High in alumina.  From the western standpoint it is BAD CLAY!  Unglazed it will often leak for long term liquid storage.  The surface texture of that sandy body assists in causing the glaze textural qualities.  Often the potters cut and scrape the body in areas (or do this overall) to get the glaze to act differently in some areas from others.  The slight amount of iron content in the body also assists in the tendency of the high potassium and sodium glaze layer to “break†to the characteristic “hi iroâ€â€¦. fire color……. on the thinly glazed spots.

 

To truly understand the allure and significance of Shino ware in Japan, you have to do some real study.  You must study Japanese Tea Ceremony.  And also study the Japanese aesthetic sensibilities that developed during the awful extended period of warfare that formed the core of their culture and world view.  So you are into studying history too (integral part of my “History of Japanese Ceramics†art history course).   That will eventually lead you to the Momoyama Jidai, the “Momoyama Revival Periodâ€, and the difficult concept of “wabi-sabiâ€â€¦..which takes a long time to actually understand in any significant way.  (Too many people thing “wabi-sabi†just means sort of “rusticâ€.)

 

American Shino has its roots loosely planted in Japanese Shino…… just as American Raku has its roots in Japanese Raku.  It is evolving from those origins in a different culture.  And the contemporary Japanese artists are also looking at this, and trying new approaches to their own tradition as processed thru a foreign culture and eye.  Exciting stuff on both sides of the pond.

 

best,

 

 

………….john

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most grateful John. Exactly what I was hoping for. 

 

:) always been a history fan (thanks dad). dont understand how one cannot be. (our history here explains so much of the election results in our country and the world too). it is history that inspires me to be a clay artist. a potter. when i first heard that blue and white came from persia my mind was blown. since a child i have been particularly partial to the Silk Road which shaped so much - including pottery.  blows my mind that we didnt have our western cups till late 1700s (was blown away when i saw cups in english paintings with no handles) and yet as i was researching persian pottery i came across a stripped cup from 12th century and then find the same shape from the BC times of Phrygian period. pottery was the first globalization. the crazy part. just a year ago if you had told me that blue and white stripped cup came from ikea down the road i'd believe you. you tell me it was maybe a 1000 years old - i'd never believe you. blows me away you will find chinese pottery remanents trying to write the arabic script in china and persia. and vice versa.  and yet i have been trying off and on to copy that cup and have not succeeded to throw the right shape yet. 

 

i am grateful to my first ceramic professor who introduced me to japanese ceramics (he studied in japan for a while) . that stillness and calmness was almost a spiritual experience. i jumped right in and was moved by what i saw. Rosanjin had me think about the right kind of pottery for serving indian food. i forget the potters name who did sushi ware that looks like landscapes. my admiration for shigaraki ware had me try to form bowls with sculpture clay when i hardly knew anything about ceramics. 

 

however my first love is buncheong. and was blown away how much of japanese tradition came from korea. which started me scratching and took me all over the world - even to Jugtown. 

 

every time i touch clay, i think of the oldest piece of art in the world - clay hand prints. maybe females too. that is why charcoal and paper has my favourite drawing medium too since elementary school. its me connecting with my forefathers. dont know why but it means so much to me but it does. so all i can do is when i have time between life's many demands i read. 

 

wish i was 30 years younger and able to attend your class.  :mellow:

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