Inside this clay jug

there are canyons and

pine mountains,

and the maker of canyons

and pine mountains!

All seven oceans are inside,

and hundreds of millions of stars.

The acid that tests gold is here,

and the one who judges jewels.

And the music

that comes from the strings

that no one touches,

and the source of all water.

If you want the truth, I will tell you the truth:

Friend, listen: the God whom I love is inside.

- Kabir, version by Robert Bly

Czeslaw Milosz

Rose-colored cup and saucer,

Flowery demitasses:

You lie beside the river

Where an armored column passes.

Winds from across the meadow

Sprinkle the banks with down;

A torn apple tree’s shadow

Falls on the muddy path;

The ground everywhere is strewn

With bits of brittle froth–

Of all things broken and lost

Porcelain troubles me most.

Before the first red tones

Begin to warm the sky

The earth wakes up, and moans.

It is the small sad cry

Of cups and saucers cracking,

The masters’ precious dream

Of roses, of mowers raking,

And shepherds on the lawn.

The black underground stream

Swallows the frozen swan.

This morning, as I walked past,

The porcelain troubled me most.

The blackened plain spreads out

To where the horizon blurs

In a litter of handle and spout,

A lively pulp that stirs

And crunches under my feet.

Pretty useless foam:

Your stained colors are sweet,

Splattered in dirty waves

Flecking the fresh black loam

In the mounds of these new graves.

In sorrow and pain and cost,

Sir, porcelain troubles me most.

Washington DC, 1947

On Dec. 11th, Malcolm Davis died.

When NCECA had it’s convention in Philadelphia, Malcolm Davis gave the closing speech.   It was a wonderful and moving speech. Pretty funny in parts, – someone when introduced to him said, “Malcolm Davis?  I thought you were a glaze!” I guess all of us shino lovers do indeed have a Malcolm Shino glaze bucket in our studio. His carbon trapped pots have been inspirational.

I listened to the speech again when I heard of his death.  Here’s a more serious excerpt that speaks to the question of why we make pots:

“But my greatest personal struggle all these years has been to come to terms with the fact that I left the active struggle for social justice to make pots and dishes for the privileged, adding more clutter to the cosmic dump. Look at the mess we are in: wars in two foreign lands and the global was on terror; an economy in shambles; millions losing their jobs, homes, and health care. Corporate giants control the Congress and the Media. The fragile planet that we so dearly love and so greedily exploit shows signs of imminent demise.

And here we are playing in the mud. Why do we make pots? Why do we work in clay? Does it serve any useful social function? Is it merely self- indulgence? Egotism? Escapism? Privilege? Is our work with clay just selfish, useless, superfluous? Are we just fiddling while Rome burns? As I was preparing these remarks, news arrived about the escalating catastrophe in Haiti, making this conversation once again both urgent and inadequate.”

He later responds:

“I continue to grapple with this question as I continue to make pots. I can do no other, for this journey for me was not so much a matter of choice, as of destiny. What we do with the clay, what we create with our hands, what we offer up from our spirits may not end racism or stop injustice, but it may just help keep our culture human.”

Link to the NCECA speech

My studio will continue to be open daily from 12 to 6PM throughout December.  If you’d like to visit, please call to let me know you are coming.  610 551-2796.

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I left to continue glazing, and when I returned I thought I saw house insulation on the bagwall.  How did that get there?

A closer look revealed a chicken.

Should I have unloaded to get her out, risked her flaying about and knocking down pots and shelves, or simply roasted a chicken?

Something extraordinary about the Café is its commitment to our community. Year after year, the Café sponsors public service events to benefit those in need.

Last weekend there was an “Empty Bowls” benefit event at the Kimberton Fire Station to raise money for PACS, the Phoenixville organization that provides food and other services for people in need in our region.

The Artisan Café began this event in our community 5 years ago.  They gathered bowls made by local potters (including Rich Holch, the owner and manager), shut down their café for the evening, and in the café served delicious soup in handmade bowls helping to raise awareness about hunger in our area and raise funds to support PACS.

“Empty Bowls” is a concept that is international in scope.  The idea is for people in the community to buy a handmade bowl to use to share a simple meal of soup and bread together, then take the bowl home as a reminder that people in our world are hungry.

The Artisan’s Café held this event for 4 years, each year growing it bigger, and raising more funds for PACS.  Last year, the response was so great there were lines at the door, and the huge amounts of their delicious soups were gone before the night was over. To accommodate the ever-growing participants, the event was moved to the Kimberton Fire Station.  Though the event wasn’t held in the café,  the Holch’s donated enough soup to feed over 500 people.  Prior to the event, they displayed the bowls in their windows, and Rich again donated over 50 bowls.  And, they helped to make the event successful by offering coffee and pastry for sale at the fire station.

This is only one of the many public service projects that they sponsor throughout the year.  Rich, Rosemarie and Rich Holch are local heroes who to help to make Phoenixville a vibrant community.

Check out the plates that I will be firing next.  These bisqued pots were glazed with Bray shino and the glaze was washed off.  Soda ash, as the plate dries, rises to the surface discoloring the plate and leaving a white powdery scum on the surface.    I’m eager to fire again and check the results.

The annual ECO Design show in West Chester will be held on Friday Oct 7th, 5-9PM and Sat, Oct 8th from 10 AM to 8PM.  The reception on Friday will be held outdoors in Harriet Wentz’s beautiful garden.  Good eats, Good pots.

I’ll be displaying new shino pots.

carbon trap rice bowls

The entire set was anything but creamy white- a variety of black spots, smokey blushes, crystals that excited me with the possibilities for glazing.  When I tried to reproduce these results, I didn’t succeed, but often got delightful glaze effects.

vase with smokey carbon trapping

vase with smokey swirls

For many years since that first dinnerware, I’ve used shino glazes and experimented with different glazing and firing methods.    When a result delights me, and turns out  right,   I try to do it the next time and often get very different results. Reproducing results was rarely consistent.  Some of the tests:  Using fresh glaze- washing the pots with soda ash water – drying fast, -drying slow, – introducing reduction at different temperatures,-  very heavy reduction,   -firing whole kiln loads of shino,- increasing the soda ash in the glaze.  Sometimes these things worked, sometimes not.  It makes the process of glazing and firing exhilarating.

three piece bowl set

Here’s some shino without carbon trapping (though there is  lovely carbon on the plate rim):

serving dish

Can one ever tire of Shino?