BRAND NEW CERAMIC OBJECT

I purchased a lovely oil-spot bowl last weekend, I wish I could show it to you. But there is no cell-phone anywhere in my vicinity -- If I'm not near a land-line, I probably do not need or want to talk on the phone -- and there's no way to load an image up. Nothing easy. Despite my often excessive use of the computer, I am at heart a Luddite.
Bring on the rocks and faggots, we need to kill a witch!
No modernity, no new-fangled technocrap!
Pitchforks and oxen work just fine!


It is a truly lovely bowl, made by Hsin-Chun Lin, whose ceramic talents have impressed me for nearly two decades now. I have a lot of his stuff, but this is the first time I've seen oil-spot glaze.

It was a wee bit expensive.
But worth every penny.
It is beautiful.

[Oil-spot (油點瓷 or 天目釉) is related to rabbit's fur: an iron oxide glaze is applied thickly, and as the material changes in the kiln, the oxygen is released and escapes at the surface leaving traces of iron, thus forming markings. This and other porcelain terms are detailed better in a post I wrote this past April, in which I made sneering comments about trashy consumerites shopping in Hong Kong. There's more to HK than just that, you know. There's food. Art. And interesting people. This post: Canton Road. Jun glazes (鈞泑), Ding porcelain (定瓷), Ru ware (汝窯), Guan (官窯), Ge ware (哥窯), Celadon (青磁), Blue-and white (青花). Rabbit's Fur (兔毫), Oil Spot (油點), and Imperial Yellow (黄搪瓷). Oil spot glaze was invented over a thousand years ago.]



Mr. Lin is a master potter, and a very great artist. And also, I suspect, now the owner of a kiln that sustains considerably higher heat.
So I am keenly looking forward to future production.

I ran out of space for my porcelains long ago.
The collection just keeps growing.
It's painless.


There were around two hundred artists down at the Palo Alto Clay & Glass Festival this past weekend. In less than one hour I had found what I wanted, and was packed up and ready to go home and gloat.
I'm still gloating.

Hsin-Chun Lin. Dick Lumaghi. Ross Spangler. Harry Nakamoto.
Two items for me, two presents for people who also love pots.
And a teabowl by Paula Prekowitz for my apartment mate.
Which she won't know about till her birthday.


Did I mention yet that I'm gloating?
Because, you know, I am.
Gloating.



Oil spot.
You really should see it.




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