TWENTY CHAWAN
An exhibition of twenty carefully selected Chawan
Welcome to a new feature of this website. Here I plan to hold a series of themed exhibitions of carefully selected pieces that I hope will interest you.
A few days ago I gave a demonstration and talk about the Chawan at the Oxford Ceramics fair. I tried to convey something of the history and tradition of this iconic form and I talked about some of the attributes required for a successful Chawan. Chawan were originally Korean rice bowls made by anonymous potters particularly in the South of Korea around the port of Pusan. It was the Japanese who admired the unpretentious ‘naturalness’ of these humble bowls and adapted them for green matcha tea. The tea masters admired the tactile nature of the pots and the often, less than perfect nature of the forms. The irregularities fitted in perfectly with the way in which the tea master saluted and honoured nature and all things natural in the contemplative ceremony. While it is true that bowls of this kind are used as part of the strictly ritual tea ceremony the Chawan, in the home, is often used when a host simply wants to welcome and honour a special guest to the house.
In the west potters have taken the Chawan and adapted the many conventions that have developed over the centuries to produce bowls that owe a great deal to their eastern cousins. I have travelled many times to both Japan and Korea. I have handled and studied many bowls. Indeed, last year I was invited to take part in a tea bowl festival in Korea where I was able to observe traditional Korean potters making Chawan. I have worked alongside a number of Korean and Japanese potters and I like to think that I have absorbed some of what is required to make a Chawan that would meet with Japanese and Korean taste. I remember very well how Tatsuzo Shimaoka used on of my Chawan in his tea house in Mashiko.
Here are twenty bowls for your consideration. Each is described and measured. The price includes packing and posting within the UK. Overseas clients…please contact me for a quote. From past experience I would say that the cost of postage to the USA would be in the region of £15 but as the price includes UK post I would make a deduction of the difference so as not to disadvantage overseas purchasers. Please email me if you require any further information or extra photographs of any particular piece.
Don’t forget to click on the images for a much clearer, larger view.
No 1. A Wood Fired Chawan with an impressed decoration.
SOLD
This bowl emerged from my wood kiln on the 26th of October…just a week or so ago. It has just the kind of subtle blushes of colour that I look for from the wood kiln. Inside is my creamy Nuka glaze.
5 inches across x 4 inches tall. £150
No2. A Wood fired Chawan with a central strap.
SOLD
For this bowl I have used a clay body that I developed which retains the warmth and texture of Shigiraki clay. I have used English materials and feldspar inclusions. The combination of the central strap and the melted feldspar chips produce a pot with a a sensual and tactile surface.
4.5 inches wide x 4 inches tall. £150
No3. A wood fired Chawan with Nuka glaze.
Another bowl with feldspar chips added to the clay body and fired in the two chamber wood fired climbing kiln. I like the way in which the glaze has trickled down from the rim and the deeply cut foot ring.
5.4 inches wide x 3.5 inches tall. £150
No 4. A Wood fired Chawan.
This bowl has my Pine Ash glaze inside. Chawan can be wide, open shapes usually referred to as ‘summer’ bowls. A slightly taller more enclosed shape is called a ‘winter’ bowl.
6.4 inches wide x 3 inches. £150
No5. Faceted Chawan.
SOLD
The shino glaze is made almost wholly from Feldspar and is a glaze particularly suited to the atmosphere of a wood kiln which fluctuates between reduction and oxidation. I have used a clay body high in iron content which has affected the colour of the glaze.
5.1 inches wide x 4 inches. £150
No 6. Shino glazed Chawan
I have glazed this bowl with two different shino glazes. The clay body is very dark and the iron from the clay has created colours ranging from red to pink.
4.5 inches wide x 3.1 inches. £150
No 7 Shino glazed Chawan.
SOLD
Occasionally, depending on the level of reduction in combination with temperature, a shino glaze will develop an almost bronze like lustre as this one has done. The texture of the glaze is buttery in nature and the dark clay body has influenced the colour.
4.2 inches wide x 3.9. £150
No 8. A Chawan with Pine ash glaze.
SOLD
An open form with a central strap to the outside. Inside, this bowl has three pours of Nuka glaze. I love the way that the Pine Ash glaze gathers on ridges where it changes colour and texture.
6.25 inches wide x 3.2 £150
No 9. A Porcelain Chawan with an impressed decoration.
SOLD
I make very little porcelain. This bowl was wood fired in a three chamber climbing kiln belonging to my friend Marcus O’Mahoney in Lismore, Ireland.
6 inches wide x 3.1 £150
No 10. A Chawan with Pine Ash Glaze. Wood fired.
Fired in the first chamber of my wood kiln the pine ash glaze achieves a beautiful, fresh green. I think that the fluctuating atmosphere of the wood kiln as it shifts between reduction and oxidation due to the natural stoking rhythm creates a pure, emerald like green celadon.
5.8 inches wide x 3.4 inches. £150
No 11. Ash glazed Chawan with Nuka pours.
SOLD
A bowl that feels particularly comfortable in the hands. Ash glazed and wood fired one can see the effects of the fly ash upon the ash glaze.
5.8 inches wide x 3.2 inches. £150
No 12. A Chawan with a combed surface.
The glaze on this bowl is made from wood ash mixed with the fine dust from a local quarry. The stone is an igneous rock known locally as Gritstone. I believe it is an igneous rock of volcanic origin known as Basalt. The basalt is high in iron and gives rise to the olive colour of the glaze.
5.2 inches wide x 3.5 inches. £150
No 13. A Chawan with local stone glaze.
The glaze on this bowl is the same one featured on No. 12. The colour of the glaze contrasts beautifully with the warm, toasted surface of the unglazed clay.
6.5 inches wide x 3.2 inches £150
No14. An Ash Glazed Chawan with an impressed pattern.
SOLD
The central ridge is there to collect the fluid glaze and the out turned rim echoes the central ridge. The impressed pattern is simple enough but is all that’s required to delineate the two strips created by the central ridge.
4.5 inches wide x 3.2 inches. £150
No 15. Wood fired Chawan with a central strap.
SOLD
A wood fired bowl with a buttery shino glaze on the inside.
5.3 inches wide x 3.8 inches. £150
No 16. Wood fired Chawan with a paddled decoration.
SOLD
I have used a wooden paddle to impress the out side of this bowl during the throwing when the clay is very wet. Pine ash glaze on the inside.
5.3 inches x 3.8 inches. £150
No. 17 Ash glazed Chawan with applied sprigged decoration.
An ash glazed Chawan fired in the wood kiln. I have applied an alternating pattern of sprigged roundels. The deep green of the ash glaze contrasts with the toasted warmth of the wood fired clay body.
4.5 inches wide x 3.8 inches. £150
No18 An ash glazed Chawan. Wood fired.
Unusually, I have glazed this bowl to include the foot ring and fired this bowl standing on sea shells. The glaze is what the Japanese would call Irabo…that is, an ash glaze with a surfeit of ash which produces this ‘stringing’ effect as the fluid glaze travels downward during the firing.
5.2 inches wide x 4.1 inches £150
No 19 Chawan with Hakeme. Wood fired.
SOLD
I have always been influenced by the pots from Korea made in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Bunchong potters used a high iron clay with a white slip covered with a transparent celadon glaze made with the clay used in the pot mixed with ash. The unpretentious pots made by anonymous potters in Korea hugely influenced the work of Hamada Shoji and Bernard Leach.
7.2 inches wide x 3.1 inches £150
No20. Tenmoku glaze with finger wipe decoration.
SOLD
I enjoy finger wiping the wet glaze. I love the immediacy of this kind of decoration and the challenge of getting it right in one swift action.
5.5 inches wide x 3.5 inches. £150