Yunomi and Kyusu

5 commentaires:

MarshalN a dit…

Hi Michel, any idea how long (human work hours) it takes for a guy to do something like this?

Michel a dit…

Hello Marshaln,

I guess the potter would spend a long time preparing, aging, and mixing his clay, for a few weeks a couple times a year.

Then the throwing is mabe 20 min and the assembling 25 mins. the making of the ball filter 15 mins, with fettling and handling for the firing an extra 10 mins.

Total time 1 hour and 15 minutes. It's only a wild guess. Mabe less.

The thing is the speed at which such a guy throws, I mean the number of turns per second the wheel head does is unbelievable.
Most of the skill is being able to control the clay perfectly at a very high speed to start off with. That initial control at high speed gives it energy and grace.
Then, he can slow down to give it that lovely grain.

So for throwing the quicker the better .
it's faster than hand forming , as for yixing teapots but years of skill and applied talent is required.

Plus I don't think he would want to do more than eight or twelve in a day as it requires total awarness not like throwing a plate or a plant pot.

MarshalN a dit…

Yeah, I have heard that Asian pottery makers generally throw things at very high speed. I remember reading about Jingdezhen throwing wheels and how they only have two speeds -- stop or very very fast.

What's involved in the mixing and aging of clays? I know that Yixing clays should need many months of aging (some would even say years), letting the stuff sit out in the rain and soak up water, etc, before it's truly usable. These days, of course, they don't care for such things.

Michel a dit…

Well I'm no clay expert, but I'm quite fussy about my clay.

When working with it mabe 30% of it does not end up being fired and every bit that i can save is put aside and when I buy a new batch every year I mix it with last years. A bit like a sour dow.

Some potters have burries some for futur generations but that's long gone out the window.
I did do it once with my stash when I left to France for a year.

Most potters adapt and mix different clays. I mix two irish ones together and my mix started off coarse but is getting finer (with less sand) as
my proficiency in making evolves.

I will soon do a post on clay mixing and aging in english. With pictures on how one mixes it.

I'd love to go to jigdezhen!

Bucketlist Becky a dit…

Good reading this poost