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My father used to say, “a good workman never blames their tools”. This was usually on the back of me at the age of 7 bending a nail and saying it was the hammer’s fault.
I also spent many a weekend digging around in the basement of the house that my grandfather built. I saw nothing in his basement that would lead me to conclude that he had built the house with those tools. They all seemed too small.
What I have learned through a string of short bursts with various pottery teachers, is that what qualifies as a “tool” in ceramic work could literally be anything.
One of my teachers would say:
Your hands are your best tool. So I prefer to use my hands as much as much as possible, but you can use anything.
Another of my teachers had a strangely extensive collection of tooth brushes and flossing machines which were kept in an old glass jam jar.
I continue to learn that the potter need never be pressed for tools.
1. A strip from a car chamois
2. Bowl
3. A computer bracket for turning
4. The broken head of a plastic spatula
5. An old brush
6. Strips cut from a softdrink can bent over a pencil and wound with cotton
for turning
7. The wire from a pen straightened, twisted and looped over a pencil from Ikea.
For turning.
8. A swiss army knife (various uses, no pun intended).
9. A length of dental floss tied between two rings from my wife’s keychain
for cutting clay.
10. A few old bread and butter plates to shift pots from the
wheel onto for drying.
11. And of course, my hands.
I know I am not the only one who draws inspiration from this man. His work; simple, austere, technically amazing (watch his demo below). He really is something to watch. I don’t know what it is about his work that attaches me to it. It could be the spirit of tradition that it imbues. I would love to have met him.
“To return to mingei, the problem is how does the individual artist today approach folkcraft. Of course the answer is that he should look after his character first. The problem of his own character must come foremost. With one’s intellect, with one’s mind, one can understand what tradition means. The folk art formula may be fed though the mind and through the intellect. But in work, what comes out must come out through one’s own fingertips, one’s own hands, otherwise it is no work at all…. Because Yanagi was a critic and dealt in words, he used the term “beauty” a great deal to express what he was trying to say. In my case, being a workman, I do not feel any lack by not using that word…. Beauty is not in the head or in the heart, but in the abdomen.”
- Shoji Hamada
His close friend Bernard Leach said of his work: ‘His pots are a living expression of the man himself’. For biographical information visit this site.
Shoji Hamada demonstrating at the University of Hawaii during a lecture tour which Leach and Hamada under took in 1953.
Signature and Hamada’s chop
(inside of box lid)
Press Moulded Bottle:
A press moulded rectangular bottle by Shoji Hamada. Decorated in typical fashion with Hamada’s distinctive brush work.
Teabowls by Shoji Hamada
“Take, for instance, eating and apple. The primitives took it right off the tree and ate it, skin, seeds, and all. But today we seem to think that peeling it looks better, and then we cut it up and stew it and make a jam of it and prepare it in all kinds of ways. In preparing the apple, quite often we commit many errors on the way. But in just taking it off the tree and eating the whole thing, there are no mistakes to be made”.
- Shoji Hamada
Watch a little bit about what he means below:
For a more comprehensive video of Hamada in action:
Every time I take a substantial break from pottery, and then come to my senses. I have a great deal of trouble centreing the clay on the wheel when I get back into it. This is the situation I am facing right now. Some mounds go into the middle, some don’t. This is something that historically corrects itself over a couple of sessions, but is especially good for the ego, as one can hear it chime “aha, so you are not as good as you thought you were”.
Despite these teething problems I was still keen to try “throwing off the mound” for the first time. What a great technique. Clearly it would save time and perhaps even clean the potter’s canvas even more, pun intended. After a couple of lumps attempting this, I found it practically impossible to keep the bottom of the mound and the top centred at the same time. It was like trying to control a push me pull you. I just couldn’t get it to work together, even after ten minutes of coning and nudging. It seems to require skill and a touch that I don’t have. Inshallah it will come with some more practice, and a serious review of the basics.
For some inspiration I turned to Michael Cardew who shows us how to “throw off the hump”. He really does make it look easy. The commentary is interesting as well.
Thanks to samkellystudio for posting this video of Cardew demonstrating.
