Akiko Hirai

I love the beautiful contrasts in Akiko Hirai's Kohiki ware, it looks strong yet delicate and I was fascinated to learn that it is inspired by face powder. Two worlds collide - make-up and ceramics - I hadn't thought about glaze like that before. Trust me, Akiko's combination of white on black clay is difficult to pull off. It's a look that I've been trying to emulate recently and I've been far off the mark! Perhaps I can pass it off as adolescent experimentation? Akiko's work is available is several great shops and galleries, including The Cold Store, Maud & Mabel, and Mint, and I am delighted that she agreed to be next-up in my series of Q&A's with inspirational makers.

Tell us a little about what you make? I make tableware and large decorative jars that are inspired by antique storage jars. What materials do you use and why? I use coarse stoneware clay. I like the texture and feel of it. I also mix in very coarse grog which appears on the surface of the pots when thrown thinly. What techniques do you use and why? I use white slip on a dark body. It is called Kohiki ware. The direct translation from Japanese is ‘powder blown ware’, the metaphor of women wearing white powder make-up. It has the beauty of ‘whiteness’ but is less harsh than sharp cold white porcelain. That was my intial inspiration and I tested a few materials to create suitable ‘slips’ and then developed it in my own way. I also often use wood ash for the subtle colours and tones on the surface of my pots. How do you fire your work? Most of the pots are fired in my gas kiln for reduction firing to give a feeling of movement on the surface. What/who inspires you to make your work? Mostly antique pots. Some are wood fired and have lots of marks of ‘accidents’. I am also inspired by novels and poems. I like the idea of ‘reading between lines.’ I have been trying to apply this to my pots. How/where do you sell your pieces? Various galleries mostly in the UK, and a few retailers abroad. Please recommend a good book? Linda Bloomfield wrote several good glaze books. These are very practical and contain lots of useful information. I always recommend them to my students. Also, Besstatsu - Taiyo, a Japanese magazine. It no longer published but you can obtain back copies. The editor's selections are excellent and each issue features topics that are very interesting. It also contains many good photos so even you do not understand the Japanese language, you can enjoy looking at these. What are your plans/ideas for the future? I have signed up for the Elle decoration online shop. I have not produced enough work for it yet, but plan to be up and running on there in the near future. I also have solo shows at the New Ashgate Gallery, Oxford Ceramic Gallery, and Slader’s Yard up until March. Each gallery will have something unique and details are on my website. Will you be running any workshops this year? I am doing 3 days masterclass at the beginning of August at Maze Hill Pottery in Greenwich this summer. I am also teaching ceramics at Kensington and Chelsea College. I teach BTEC level 2 and 3 depending on the level of people starting from September. For enquiries or to be added to the waiting list, please email a.hirai@kcc.ac.uk

Thank you Akiko!

Studio Visit: Nicola Tassie

In December I visited the studio of one of my favourite ceramicists, Nicola Tassie. You may recognise her work from Margaret Howell or The New Craftsmen. Each pot is slightly different but all display a defiantly strong form and experimental use of clay and colour. I am in awe of Tassie's experimentation with clay. In fact, every morning I drink my coffee out of one of her cups, and each day I think how incredibly beautiful it is. For me, that simple, faceted clay mug symbolises everything that I love about design; it's accessible, well-crafted, well-designed, and my life is enriched by using it.

How did you start making ceramics? I actually studied painting at college (the Central School of Art), but was curious about clay, perhaps through choosing early rock art for my thesis subject. A friend and I visited the ceramics department and asked if we could have a go at throwing, the technician gave us some crank, told us to hold on firmly, and left us to it. After a short while our hands were bleeding and we wondered at the toughness of potters! Cross department interest was not encouraged at Central! It obviously didn’t put me off though, and a few years later, after graduating I joined an evening class at my local adult education institute and have not stopped since. What made you choose to concentrate on tableware? My first interest in making ceramics was in the surface - drawing imagery with brushes and sgraffito marks, as a way of extending my life drawing practice - and so I learnt to throw as a means to make pots quickly and small bowls and cups and jugs were about all I was capable of at the beginning! Then the form of the pot started to influence the imagery, and the simple variations of how a bulging or convex wall of a cup or bowl effect the surface design has become a main preoccupation. The function of the pot - picking it up and using it – also gives an added tactile dimension to explore. I think it’s interesting to make small scale domestic works that fit into homes, and become part of everyday living as well as carrying a specific meaning or history. Do you look to any other potters/artists for inspiration? Definitely, all the time. I love looking at pots, paintings and objects. The ceramics department at the V&A is a wonder. I love English slipware, German salt glaze jars, Lucie Rie, Miro’s ceramics, Marianne de Tray and more. I’ve just seen the Paul Klee exhibition at Tate Modern – wonderful, contained paintings - he is so inventive with the surfaces and colours, it’s given me some thoughts about glazing. It’s also interesting to see the new work contemporary artists, like Jessica Jackson Hutchens, are making with ceramics and clay. Your forms are very simple and beautiful. How do you develop new shapes? I feel I’m rather slow at making new shapes. There is a continuity in making, with each form following on from the other, the process often leading to a new idea. For instance, out of curiosity, I was throwing with some heavily grogged clay and finding it hard to work with for too long or to get it thin enough, so that the finished jug was rather too heavy for use. I decided to shave some of the clay off from the outside and ended up with a lighter, ‘faceted’ jug and new shape! I’m definitely more of a vessel maker than a bowl maker and prefer subtle curves and close handles. You've recently started making lighting - tell us a little about that? In Paris I saw an exhibition of French 1950/60’s potter George Jouve. I was impressed with his expansive range of ceramics, he made tabletops, stools, sculptures, wall finishes and lamps. It’s an opportunity to work on a larger scale, building form with simple geometric shapes-cones, cylinders and spheres. They are thrown in different parts and joined together, or else I add coils to a thrown base and pull up, taking time to let it dry off a bit before continuing with another coil until they look finished. At the moment I’m glazing them very simply in either matt black or white, as there is enough play with the shadows across the form when the light is switched on. What different clays and glazes do you use? I make ranges with different types of clay, at the moment I’m using a light buff stoneware, a black stoneware, a beautifully smooth mid-range Keuper Red and Limoges porcelain. I also add different grades of grog to get different surface effects. I keep a lot of glazes in the studio, either made from recipes (they always turn out different from the description!) or ready-made powders from the pottery suppliers. I have phases of working with particular ones, but a lot of my current porcelain work is left raw on the outside and glazed with a glossy transparent on the inside. Where do you sell and exhibit?The Wills Lane Gallery in St Ives, Contemporary Ceramics in London, Maud and Mabel in Hampstead, London, Gallery Top, Matlock, Derbyshire, The New Craftsmen and Margaret Howell shops in London , Paris and Tokyo. At the moment, I also am in an exhibition: Mud and Water, at the Rokeby Gallery, until 6th March 2014.

Thank you Nicola!

Ghosts

This is a bunch of fun little guys. These ceramic Ghosts are hand thrown, earthenware cones and come in a variety of different pastel and speckled glaze finishes. They look at their mysterious best clustered together, in unassuming groups around the home. Danish designer Anders Arhoj and ceramicist Louise Gaarmann make the Ghosts, based on the ideas behind the Japanese Shinto religion, which believes that everything in nature has a soul - from a mountain rock to a plant or a pebble on the beach. Inspired by this concept, the couple decided to make a series of simple ceramic figures and breathe life into them with a pair of cartoon eyes.

www.arhoj.com

Ben Fiess

Ben Fiess is a master of colours and materials. His utilitarian storage vessels combine custom glazes with a unique four-part, slip-cast construction, cork plugs and rubber bands.

Crafted by hand on a farm in rural Minnesota, these porcelain pots are uniquely beautiful. Ben has also created an online clay and glaze body database which is well worth checking out - if you are into that kind of thing.

www.bfiess.com

Lucie Rie

Lucie Rie is hands-down my favourite potter. Her restrained elegance is something I aspire to (and fail miserably to achieve) in every pot I make. I love her bold use of scraffito - simple marks scratched through the surface of the clay - which highlight the form of each pot. However, my favourite pieces are her whiteware. Thrown, then altered, with the lips subtly dipped in manganese, these pieces are so simple and so beautiful that I could gaze at them all day.

I am currently reading Lucie Rie: Modernist Potter by Emmanuel Cooper. It is a brilliant biography and places her life and pots in context. From her training in Vienna to her exile in London through to the creation of her then 'challenging' modern style, she comes across as a wonderfully direct, hardworking and astute lady.

yalebooks.co.uk

Elephant Ceramics

The intense teal, sloppy glaze and irregular outline of these plates and platters by Elephant Ceramics is intoxicating. Each piece is hand pressed by Michel Michael, a former prop stylist and features the texture of traditional homespun linen pressed into the clay.

Made from either porcelain or stoneware, each piece is unique as Michelle experiments with brushing, pouring and dipping to create her trademark painterly glaze finishes. I love the looseness of the pieces and the way they coordinate together to make the perfect mismatched tableware collection.

www.elephantceramics.com