Since I have an exhibition coming up in mid June, I’ve started working on various everyday things to sell at a lower price range. These are some rice bowls. Oddly enough, I’ve never really made rice bowls before. I think there are about 30 here, that seems to be what a run of pots usually comes to, 30 to 40.

I took a rice bowl that I like from my kitchen and measured it, added about 17%, and made my measuring stick (tonbo) for the pot’s width and depth. Even with a gauge such as this to keep every pot within a certain width and height, I always marvel at the profile variation you get within these two parameters, even when using a fairly precise tool like the cows tongue rib. I’m having less trouble these days getting a more uniform profile among pieces, but what still gives me fits is trying to make a light pot that is strong visually. Especially with rice bowls, you want a strong foot and rim because they’ll be used heavily, but because people spend so much time holding them, you don’t want them to be heavy overall, or unbalanced with a heavy foot and light upper half.

One of the reasons my teacher’s bowls are such a pleasure to hold, I realized one day, was that they are well balanced. Even with the tall foot of the Ido shape, his bowls turn in the hands nicely, without the foot trying to sink in your grip. This is one of those things that most people aren’t aware of, but notice unconsciously in mature well made pots. One other characteristic of his pots that I aspire to is not visible in the finished product, but one notices as a potter when they are being made, and that is: he has very very few trimmings even from a large run of pots. The shape has been well planned and executed on the wheel, so that almost no trimming is necessary, and the bulk of the trimmings come from inside the footrings of the pots. Very little waste.

Nothing to do but practice…