Tragedy in Japan

I had thought long and hard about how to post about this, on my tea blog I made a bit of a call for making the year 2011 a year for Japanese Teas and Teaware. I encourage a similar thing on this blog. Though a bit more tragic is while most of the tea regions where minimally effected by this event, Japanese potters were directly effected by this event.

There is a Potter specific relief fund, found at the following link:

https://www.pubservice.com/Submiscrcpt.aspx?PC=PQ&PK=S103DON

Many people made donations to an auction which is going live tonight in which all proceeds are going to aid Japan.

http://stores.ebay.com/handmade-for-japan

And Robert Fornell an artist I am quite fond of although I have yet to acquire a piece by him, is donating all proceeds from his Etsy store for the time being.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/robertfornell?ref=pr_shop_more

If people have any other links involving ceramics and relief efforts for Japan please let me know an I will work on keeping this page updated.

Seigan Ao Tebineri Kyusu

Of all the pieces I have acquired this might be the one I am least happy with overall. I say that because it is almost unusable for its intended purpose. That being said amazing things happen on this piece in terms of glaze, and it is a pinch work piece, and I tend to favor the amazing textures of pinch work pieces. So in detail what are my problems with this piece?

Sadly all the problems are near impossible to see from the photos. The first of all being its Gargantuan size in terms of kyusu's. I mean I have a penchant for large kyusu's but this one is holds roughly 20 oz or more.

Second is the filter has incredibly large holes even for a Hagi Kyusu, and I often joke that when I use this kyusu I am having a salad with my tea (and I only brew Asamushi in this kyusu). Besides that possibly due to the fact that it is in the first few of a new style of Kyusu he was creating, but the spout is poorly formed and dribbles down the front unless I turn it so the spout is practically vertical.

Not to mention in my opinion the inside glazing looks incredibly sloppy, and almost unfinished or so in parts. To me it seems almost a bit sloppy in its overall presentation and usability. So for the most part this stays mostly on the shelf, which while it is not so bad to look at, I really wish I could use it more often.