Anyone can do this type of construction, not difficult at all, doesn’t require fancy tools (you can do it easily enough on a banding wheel), and it can be used for stuff small to large. It also shows that pinch pots can be other than thick, heavy, and lumpy. I make tokkuri the same way, but just add a few coils at the end to form the neck. The chawan shown were made from a 400g ball to start. I’ll show the trimmed cups in the next post.

I compress the rim with a chamois, and give one light pull with no water, using my fingernails rather than fingertips (this step can be skipped if you’re using regular plastic clay). Oops, see last pic in previous post below for the rim compress step.

I shape the rim, then brush some water on the inside and outside, and quickly give a single pull to shape the cup. I use a gyubera on the inside for this step. That’s it, done. Cut off the wheel and trim.

The other day I made some guinomi and took some pics so folks can see how it’s done. I start with a ball, about 150g. Once it’s centered on the kickwheel, I start putting my open it up with my thumb by pinching. This clay is really non plastic so starts cracking at the rim right away.

I keep pinching and rotating slowly until the cup is as high as I want it.

Perhaps now would be a good time to compress the rim…

Well, the loft is slowly coming together, and I finally am able to display some work for customers in something other than green plastic containers.
For the guinomi/tokkuri/katakuchi area, there is a large rusted chain I found at the beach while snorkeling last year. It’s rusted completely through and very crumbly, but just gorgeous. I rescued the old timber from a kiln’s lumber pile. Totally eaten through by worms, and still had the carpenter’s brushwork labelling. It’s pine, so probably old, but I couldn’t make out the date. I split it in half lengthwise and used half for the bottom of one of my shelves, and the other half for standing teabowls on.

I found this kansai style nagahibachi at a local collectible store the other day. Got an unbelievable deal on it. It’s in beautiful condition, with the original hardware intact, and the copper sake warmer/kettle stand in the ashpit. I serve tea to customers at this table now, my coasters and tea caddy (thanks again Craig!) fit nicely into the covered compartment under the table top’s wooden section. I just happened to have a piece of glass to cover the ashpit with, how lucky! Can’t wait fill this little guy up with rice straw ash and fire it up this winter for tea (and maybe some sake too).

Here are some pics of my new shelf system for ware boards. It sits between my two wheels and is turning out to be super convenient… I drilled holes for pegs, inserted pegs, and the boards sit on these. Very simple. I can stack four wareboards on the bottom set of pegs then shift them up as they become full. 4 shelves is plenty, forces me to get up and move around every once and a while.

Here are some freshly trimmed katakuchi happily perched on their new shelves. I swear I can see those spouts turned up at the corners….