chawan cat

30 CHAWAN

In this, the sixth turning page catalogue I have carefully selected 30 different Chawan with varying glazes and decorative treatments.

The Chawan is a bowl often, although not exclusively, used in the tea ceremony in Japan, Korea and China. In the world of Japanese traditional ceramics there is not one form held in higher esteem than aChawan. For more than 400 years this celebrated clay form has challenged potters to create a vessel of quiet harmony to enhance or even complete the act of drinking tea. Yet there is much more than meets the eye when we begin to look at Chawan and the subtle nuances they embody.

What are the factors that define a worthy Chawan? For me at least the making of a bowl that will qualify as a Chawan and command the respect of those who are well informed requires study and consideration for the conventions involved. The Chawan should be a well-balanced, pleasantly-weighted form that brings together all the aspects of orchestration from the way the lip is angled, to the curves of the body and how that will influence the inner pool, The foot is important too, sometimes carved, sometimes trimmed the foot should sit comfortably within the scheme of the bowl while presenting a natural and tactile punctuation to the underside.

I have been lucky enough to have visited both Japan and Korea on a number of occasions and have been able to look at and handle many Chawan in many different styles. I have been taught the fundamentals of what a Chawan should be by esteemed potters form both Japan and Korea. My teabowls are in place in tea houses in Japan and I was fortunate to supply the Senshinan tea house at Washington and Lee University in the USA with all of their ceramic utensils. A number of museums also contain my Chawan in their permanent collections including the Victoria and Albert in London.

The bowls in this catalogue are all the same price 150 plus the postage.Within the UK 4.30 to the USA 12.50 and to Europe 9.50

Please email me at [email protected] to reserve the Chawan of your choice and purchases will be strictly in order of the emails received for any particular bowl. Please include your address and a telephone number. I have a very limited number of wooden boxes I can sign and seal if there is interest and providing I have one to fit the bowl of choice. Im sorry but I cant guarantee there will be a box suitable for every bowl. The boxes are at cost and are 10.00.I hope you enjoy the selection.

C1. An ash glazed and wood fired Chawan.

Incised decoration under my pine ash glaze. The ash for this glaze comes from the firebox of the wood kiln.

5 inches x 4 inches.

C2. Ash glazed and wood fired Chawan.

I have impressed a stamped pattern into the central strap.

5 inches x 3.5 inches.

C3. A wood fired Chawan with pine ash glaze.

I am particularly fond of the contrast in colour between the emerald green of the glaze and the toasted redness of the wood fired clay body.

6.25 inches x 3.5 inches.

C4. Chawan with Hakeme.

I have developed a clay body especially for this technique. Hakeme, as the Japanese call it, was originally a Korean technique known as Guiyal ( pronounced Quee-al) and one of the traditional ways to use white slip, a dark clay body and a clear glaze.


C5. A wood fired Chawan.

Sometimes nothing extra is required.


C6. A Chawan with a paddled decoration.

The glaze on the inside is what we call Nuka. Nuka is a high silica ash glaze. In the east it was, and is, made from Rice Husk Ash which is about 98% silicaI substitute Quartz or Flint, both 100% silica for the husk ash. The surfeit of silica, too much for all of it to enter the melt of the glaze, creates the white, semi opaque glaze.

5 inches x 3 inches.

C7. An ash glazed and wood fired faceted Chawan.

When I built the wood kiln I developed a clay body which was based upon chemical analyses of Shigiraki clays from Japan. I wanted a clay that fired to a red colour without anything on its surface. I really like the contrast of colour between the green of the celadon ash glaze and the warmth of the flashed clay.


C8. A wood fired and ash glazed Chawan.

I use the strap technique on a variety of forms. It is a way of creating deep lines for the ash glaze to pool into thereby changing colour and texture. I feel that it also introduces a means of communicating the plastic quality of soft clay even after the piece is fired.


C9. A Chawan with an impressed surface.

5.25 inches x 4 inches.

With certain ash glazes one sails close to the wind sometimes. To achieve that special quality where the glaze pools onto lines and into hollows it has to be fluid at the height of the firing. Occasionally that means the glaze might just run where we dont want it to. Thankfully, the glaze on this one stopped short of the bottom of the foot which saved a bowl that otherwise fired the best that I could have hoped.

C10. A Chawan with a white slip decoration.

I have taken a very thick white slip and applied it quickly with a soft brush. This kind of decoration, a little like finger wiping, requires a free arm and without hesitancy to achieve a spontaneous mark.


C11. Wood fired Chawan.

With Hakeme to the interior and an ash glaze.

5.25 inches x 3 inches

C12. A Shino glazed Chawan.

This decoration is done during the throwing with a wooden paddle with a deeply cut pattern. I have combed the edge of the pattern to cover the transition area at the top of the bowl. Wood fired.



I have used a wooden paddle with a carved surface to create this pattern. My pine ash glaze inside and over the lip.


C14. Chawan with Hakeme.

Hakeme is the Japanese word for what was originally a Korean technique called Guiyal. I believe that in the beginning the brushing of the white slip in this fashion was away of helping the slip to adhere to the surface of the pot. The Japanese tea masters saw the country made anonymous rice bowls with what they saw as a natural and harmonious decorative technique and adopted the bowls for the tea ceremony.



I have been firing with wood for about 12 years. When I built the two chamber wood kiln my intention was not to achieve lots of running ash and encrusted surfaces. RatherI wanted blushed colourssubtle changes of colour that depended upon the placement of the pot in relation to the path of the flame through the kiln. This bowl shows that perfectlya pale peach colour that changes to a soft, glazed area that is the result of the vapours released by the burning wood.


C16. Ash glazed Chawan.

I have impressed the surface of this bowl with the fir cone of the North Folk Pinea tree that grows in warmer climes than the UK. There are two glazesinside and over the lip is an Elm ash glazethe body of the bowl is my pine ash glaze.


C17 Wood fired Chawan.

Similarly to C16 there are two glazes on this bowlElm and Pine ash glazes. Its interesting to note the subtle differences between this one which is wood fired to C16 which was fired in my oil kiln. Nuka pours inside.


C18. A Chawan with Hakeme.

Hakeme is the Japanese word for what was originally a Korean technique called Guiyal. I believe that in the beginning the brushing of the white slip in this fashion was away of helping the slip to adhere to the surface of the pot. The Japanese tea masters saw the country made anonymous rice bowls with what they saw as a natural and harmonious decorative technique and adopted the bowls for the tea ceremony.


C19. An open Chawan with Hakeme.

A summer bowl. Open shaped bowls were and are used in the tea ceremony in summer to allow the tea to cool more rapidly.

The Chawan isnt used exclusively for the tea ceremony. Often, a visitor to a Japanese house is made to feel welcome and special by being given green tea in a Chawan. I remember very well visiting Toru Matsuzaki and his wife ( Toru is the brother of Ken Matsuzaki and is a nationally recognised maker of lacquer ware). We took green tea prepared by Torus wife on a very snowy day in a very traditional Japanese house in a variety of Chawan by potters such as Hamada Shoji, Shimaoka Tatsuzo, Ken Matsuzaki and Kawai Kanjiro. A very memorable day.


C20. A Chawan with Tenmoku glaze.

Having glazed the outside I have wiped away three marks with my finger while the glaze was still wet. Ash glaze inside.


C21. A wood fired Chawan,

This glaze is made from wood ash and a finely powdered stone from a local quarry called Greywacke. Greywacke is a variety of sandstone characterised by its hardness and is used in the road mending industry.

Nuka pours on the interior.



As with C21 this bowl has the glaze made with stone dust from a local quarry. The colour of the glaze contrasts beautifully with the warmth of the wood fired clay body. There are three Nuka pours to the outside.


C23. Ash glazed Chawan.

An ash glazed with an impressed pattern. Wood fired.

A simple repeat, stamped pattern and my pine ash glaze contrasting with the flashed warmth of the clay body.



In making pots my main concern is form. Here, a Chawan that relies almost entirely on the form and the nuance of the wood flame.

Nuka glaze to the inside.


C25. An ash glazed Chawan.

I have impressed a rope pattern underneath and incised line.

There are two glazesElm ash inside and Pine ash outside.


C26. Salt glazed Chawan.

This piece was fired in the 2nd chamber of my wood kiln before I switched and turned that chamber into a second wood fire chamber. I intend to begin salt glazing again in my oil fired salt kiln after a gap of 8 years.


C27. A wood fired Chawan with ash glaze.

The strap provides a vehicle for the glaze to pool and change colour and texture.

Pine ash glaze.



A wood fired Chawan with shino glaze inside. The advantage of the wood kiln is that often the nuances of colour and texture gifted by the kiln are enough.


C29. A Chawan with Nuka and Tenmoku.

I have combed the surface of the bowl during the throwing and then dipped the very rim into an iron slip. The slip has affected the Tenmoku turning it red and there is a very interesting overlap area where the two glazes have created a new glaze.



I have used a wooden paddle to texture this bowl and then combed the edges of the pattern to create a kind of frame. Pine ash glaze.


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