I believe this is my first wood fired piece, from a young artist that is quickly making a name for himself both in the US and in Japan. This Yunomi shows his incredible talent in so many ways. While obviously wheel thrown, the way in which he did not overly smooth out the sides of the cup, and left decent curling ridges working their way up the sides of the cup, creates an almost ideal grip on this otherwise slippery piece. So much so that with my somewhat large hands, with an empty cup, I can manage to hold it (not incredibly well) with just my middle and ring fingers curled around one side, pressing it against the pads on the palm side of my knuckles.
The piece seems so ideal in how it fits into my hand, feels surprisingly light and soft for its size, that I am just absolutely thrilled. Even more so it has some characteristics I have long since wanted from a White Hagi Yaki piece, that only exist when wood fired. That is the white is actually a subtle pink in most places that darkens or lightens with the effects of what was going on around it in the kiln.
The biggest con in my eyes, is the foot is quite ugly, and ugly in the sense that it looks like he sanded off a hell of a lot of wadding to smooth out the bottom of the cup. Which when you look at the foot, it lacks the soft look and feel that the rest of the cup has so much of. The sanded and smoothed out sections look rough, and raw, and especially scarred.
