JÜN


        This way of working is ancient . . .

Horse chestnut Ash with no pigments or copper, when these came out of the kiln it felt like almost a miracle..

        The price is 125 £ or 150 Euros plus 15£ delivery or 20 E
        For the US 185$ plus 30 $ postage

         My email mrmfrancois@gmail.com





Glazure à base de cendre de chataigner aucun cuivre n'a été utilisé pour donner ce rendu;

leurs prix est de 150 Euros plus 20 E de frais d'envoye

mon mail mrmfrancois@gmail.com

Viva el Karatzu !

Raku?
Hagi ?


Nah...
Karaztu man, Karatzu ROCKS my world.
Sometimes classifications are for the Birds or have their meaning in a particular context, and out of that context mean nothing but a few lines in a book.

Vive le Karatzu...















Each large Karatzu bowl is for sale at 100£ plus 15£ postage or 130 Euros plus 30 Euros postage

For the US 150 $ plus 35$ postage please email me at mrmfrancois@gmail.com for images and details.

Chaque bol est à 130 euros plus 30 euros de frais d'envoye.




Je viens juste de faire une cuisson, il est 1 heure et demi du matin et je bois un Qilai Shan de chez teamasters. Je suis si fatigué mais je suis aux anges.

L'ouverture Mardi matin...









The Wheel does not stop spinning the kilns don't stop firing, my life has been given over to the the Clay god.

2 more weeks to go before I get some rest. .












Un Chawan de forme Ch'ien Noir Tien Mu à la methode Setoguro..

Ce Chawan à été sortie du four à chaud.

Son prix est de 130 euros plus 15 euros de frais d'envoye
mon mail mrmfrancois@gmail.com

A black chawan of Ch'ien shape with Tenmoku glaze Setoguro style of firing.
Its price is 180 $ plus 20$ postage
email me at mrmfrancois@gamil.com

A Cornish Tien Mu Shan



We have no Mountains in Cornwall but we have the Godolfin hills, where from there you can see both coasts in one sweep of the eye. These hills are small and not very famous, but I relate much to this view.

I have made more Yuan type teabowls.
This time I wanted to control the firing even more, as well as the post firing;
in order to get an even more luminus and darkest black.
A cross between Tien mu tenmoku and Black Seto.
This is why they are so hard to photograph they are shining deep mirror black.

To achieve this end I fired my kiln with 3 burners, turning one burner off every half hour to get a more even reduction.
After the firing I opened the kiln red hot 1300° and took out ( with massive metal blacksmith tongs) the teabowls one by one. Two of the early ones actually have the tong mark inside the bowl.
Then I closed the door only to reopen it 20 minutes later to take more teabowls out.
By this time the heat inside the kiln had managed to reoxidise ever so slightly the remaining bowls, adding more brown specles to the rims and the glaze.

Bronze , blue.. the glaze melted just enough to start thickening up at the base.
I think 15 minutes more and they would have dribbled too much .. fine very fine line..











Prices are 130 euros per Chawan, delivery is 15 euros. That is 100£ plus 10£ delivery or for the US 180$ plus 20$ delivery. I kept only 7 chawans in this firing, One has already gone .
email me at mrmfrancois@gmail.com

Je me suis remis à faire des bols à thé. Cette fois j'ai voulus avoir encore plus de controle sur la cuisson et le refroidissement.
Leurs prix 130 euros plus 15 euros de frais d'envoye. Je n'ai gardé que 7 chawan de cette cuisson.
mon email mrmfrancois@gmail.com





Voici un Grand bol à Fruits avec une Glasure type Karatzu, fabriqué avec un tiers de cendre de Marronnier.
Le rendu est tout simplement le plus beau, plus intense et plus subtile à la fois.

Chaque type d'arbre à sa particularité et avec la même recette, on obtient un résulltat différent en fonction de la cendre utilisé.
C'est comme si chaque arbre, une fois que sa vie à été épuisée, nous livre dans sa cendre un dernier cadeau.

La cendre d'arbre, pour un potier c'est de la poudre magique.
Mais il faut une Tonne de bois pour 10 kilo de cendre brute et 10 kilo de cendre brut pour 3kilo de cendre pure.
Le travail de lavage et de tamissage est énrome.

Si quelqu'un brûle beaucoup de Marronier faites-moi signe .. par email au mrmfrancois@gmail.com



Here is a Large Fruit bowl with a Horse chestnut Karatzu glaze.
Even after the tree has gone the ash it leaves behind is magic dust to the Potter.
Each type of tree has its particularities, horse chestnut is my favorite.
The amount of work involved in preparing the ash is not for the faint hearted; It is like mining for Gold.

If you are burning Horse chestnut please contact me on mrmfrancois@gmail.com I will reward you for your ash.




Monday morning Blues..
Phone up this gallery, email this person, plan the coming weeks, pack pots..
Worked all week end and my mind wants to strike.
But...

But the SHOW MUST go on. .
Time for a gykuro...

I so need an assistant..
one day..

Any one out there wants to be a potter?

A few images of some of the preliminary pots for Eden. You can watch a small video about the Eden Bakery click here

Quelques images des premières pièces pour le Eden Project Bakery Restaurant. The pots on the video are not ours but those of Don Hutson
Vous pouvez voire une petite video du concept de ce nouveau Restaurant/boulangerie/Eden Bakery cliquez ici

Ces photos sont les premiers tests. La totalité de la gamme comporte 11 pièces.











Late last September the Eden Project were looking for some pottery for their new Eden Bakery concept. This concept was originally concieved by Clive Cobb of the TownMill Bakery and part of his success with this concept is the combination of fresh bread and fresh food served in handmade pots, made by potter Don Hudson

.
Jacob and I proposed a range of tableware, After a bit of refining we branded it and presented it to the Eden team.

Made to fit into every kitchen, it is inspired by traditional european pottery.
It looks like Crème Fraîche and we were thinking of Vermeer's 'the Milkmaid'
and Mark Rothko for the composition of the amount of slip application.

Spanish, Greek, French (Alsace, la Borne, Normandy) and Cornish of course!
There is a nod to all these traditions ,yet the way we chose the clay,
the manner in which we use the slip and the way we glaze gives this body of work a contemporary feel..

It is exctiting to be reviving tradition and put two fingers up at all those that think traditional influences are too passé for the 21 st century ..

Tradition can be revisited, and envigorated.
I remember late at night some amazing cuban singer talking about his musical tradition and tradition in general,
his deep warm voice saying. .

Ya know, If there is no oxygenisation within tradition it will not be passed on.
without oxygen there is no life.
Without tradition there is no roots,
if there is no roots, there is no tree;
and with no trees there is no life.

We are living in interesting times.
We are no longer tied down to tradition.
liberation from it has benefited the prolific and creative output in Ceramics in the latter half of the 20 century.
Britain being one of the most vibrant places for this.
The outcome has been that ceramics has flourished and that pottery has nearly died. . buried alive by university academics and many a ceramicist trying to detach themselves from it.
The poor quality of both craftsmanship and esthetics by alienated and disenchanted potters are also to blame,
coupled with the bombardment of quality design.

Yes Design has surplanted religion in its take on people.
It is not tecnology that changes the world so quick but Design.

Design is power and more often than not the production process directly linked to Design ommits the soulfull entity,
it erases the memory of the making process and the conciousness naturally present in the making of an object.
Objects become almost virtual pieces made with basterdised materials that have no energy.
A mug from a supermarket if broken will no be missed, for there is no connection with the object, the material and making process carry no life.

How can people understand what they are missing if in their lives they don't use handmade pottery.

So many people.. good, talented, cultivated people, never had a clue of what they missed before we converted them to living with the handmade..

Handmade pots will make a difference in your life, an a much bigger difference than you think.

Jacob and I are producing this new range for the Eden Project. Check out Jacob's blog photosandphilosophy for more images of the making process. We are making very affordable pots for all. .

Korean for Dinner



As a potter the most satisfying thing is not to open the kiln or the discovering of a new great glaze-
or even doing a posh show in Mayfair.

It is to witness the magic of pottery in its rightfull setting.

Many great pots live in Museums from birth and now even are made for Museums. This is great and inspiring sometimes,
Like the Grason Perry exhibition at the British museum.
Craft becoming Art.

I personally use Art to make Craft, usefull craft.
Not that I am a traditionalist with the belief that usefull craft is the sole thing worth while making;
but my calling for it is too great for me not to act upon it.

Thank you Catherine for this image that warms my heart.
Catherine is a sharp and very creative contemporary artist,
her work is often personal and diverse both in media and content.
I learn a lot about my own work by meeting up with her as I watch her select my pots.

I send a smile to David and Kathy for making me a similar asian meal a few nights ago with pots I gave them a few years ago.

Great to see pots being LOVED and USED it does make the pots BETTER somehow.

This is MINGEI for me.



Ce bol est un bol de type Ch'ien, une ancienne forme chinoise.
Son prix est le meme que le bol Yuan

email mrmfrancois@gmail.com

This is a Ch'ien type teabowl, an ancient Chinese shape.
It's price 100 euros including delivery



These last few years I have been researching and making Teabowls; many, many have ended up on the scrap heap..
Still a few of them deserve the right to be the faithfull companion of a teadrinker.

The previous post was about the Yuan teabowl.
This one is loosely inspired by mongolian cups.
As I was making it, I was imagining ancient Pu Ehr steam emanating and warming one's face
on a fresh spring morning as the dew rises all around ..

Reduction fired to 1300°, it benefits form a 'kiss lip' finish on the rim, making it very pleasant to drink out of.
Perfect for sencha and thirsty Pu Ehr drinkers.

It is for sale at 100 Euros delivery is included.
My email mrmfrancois@gmail.com





La fabrication du bol à Thé est une aventure qui n'abouti pas souvent à un résultat satisfaisant.

Tous les potiers ont ce même dilème.

Il faut produire au tour des pièces en pleine concentration;
de manière libre, relax, en toute sincérité.

Puis il faut accomplir un tournassage franc, direct et impulsif.
L'application de la glasure est aussi primordial; prendre des risques sans pour autant forcer. .

La cuisson doit, elle aussi être un peu risqué, faite de manière nouvelle.
Le risque de tout perdre devient donc plus grand que le contraire.

Plus d'une centaines de mes bols à thé n'ont pas aboutis au bon résultat.

Je compte vous en présenter quelques uns au rythme d'un bol par poste.
Car ces bols, eux méritent bien leur place sur la table à thé.

Leurs prix sont de 100 Euros pièce - livraison incluse.
Mon mail mrmfrancois@gmai.com

Ce premier bol est de forme Yuan.

Un espace..dans un bol. C'est fou.




A bientôt

Kiln Tea Ceremony



The pleasure of being a potter is to have such an occasion to drink tea.

The cars are lined up to take the work to London for a show.
Have worked non stop, firing the Kiln over night to get there on time.
The studio is trashed and Matcha is the only remedy left to spark you back into action..

A workman's pallet, a hot Chawan from the Kiln, Wabi bottles by Jacob Bodilly also hot out the kiln.The flower is a bit of Wild Gause growing nearby.









Jacob's bottle looks like a Seal..








I'm tripping on the mad quality of this glaze, the matcha feels like it is hitting the spot, thank you little leaves..


funny what people get up to in forgotten car parks hey...
Thomas this is your second jar.

An Ode to the Water Bowl..



I think the water bowl to be central to Gong Fu.

Most concentrate their affections only on the teapot for it changes the quality of the tea, after all a water bowl only receives the spent tea and leaves.

Having said that the Waterbowl is still the most used object in the teadrinking ritual, as one changes teapots and cups far more that one does a water bowl.

As an object of contemplation, it captures the memory of the tea session.

This object has something communal about it.

One could say the Teapot is a direct extension of the brewer whereas the water bowl sits as a neutral entity, a witness to the proceedings..

It does not get the 'white gloves' -'special treatment' like a fine Chawan does, a bowl that hardly ever gets used.
After six months or a year of daily usage the water bowl looks aged, mellowed and appears more serene.

Raw, alive with leaf, crackled, crazed, patinated it is as if a well loved waterbowl almost has lichen growing out of it.

Often I find myself thinking I could pick it up and drink that dirty water up in one gulp ..
like an unkept mongol warrior !
hardly Gong fu etiquette..
but the waterbowl seems so inticing sometimes..

I am also so surprised how the person who uses it transforms it.


Blue Celadon 50/50 cornish Clay to Ming style porcelain.
This shape is inspired by korean ritual water dishes which were used in weekly ritual by Korean families to remember their loved ones of generations past.
The dish became a heirloom to be past on and used by the new generations to remember the old.



This one is kind of special, (no chuckling David..) the first time I opened the kiln I did not like these 'wine stained bowls' but this esthetic it is growing on me. No copper has been used on this bowl, the plum marks are a reaction of the Beech ash to a very heavy reduction atmosphere in the kiln.


And one of my favorites made with a warm pine woodash celadon