In prepping myself for a potential excursion to Japan, and just filling in the time between the smidgens of revision I'm supposed to be doing, I watched a few documentaries on the NHK World news channel (日本放送協会, Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai; official English name: Japan Broadcasting Corporation) and came across one mentioning an American ceramics artist named Dorothy Feibleman.
She was making amazing ceramics using numeorus clays that when baked once are translucent, then fired again explodes into amazing colours and patterns! The method of Nerikomi patterning in clay is pretty cool: imagine layering different colours of clay and squishing them much in same way filo pastry is made with butter and batter layers. The squashed clay is cut into thin slices, with each slice detailed in swirling lines of colour. It can look like marble in some cases. The slices are smooshed together, replicating the patterns into forms such as petals, fossils, swirls and spikes, and the process goes on in a number of ways - the end product is a pot, a cup or a dish with beautiful colours and patterns. The techniques have been passed down through generations but the term Nerikomi is a modern term, and in reality the tradition travelled from China. Marbling techniques are present in many other cultures also.
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| Feibleman |
Feibleman managed to use her extensive knowledge of clays and their properties in combination with the Nerikomi technique to craft unheard of designs, based on Japanese woven fabrics and nature. Oxides in the clay give them numerous qualities and she seems a master at picking them out, check these out:
What's brilliant is that these patterns are not painted on, they are actually the clay layered structure itself. So skillful!
She advanced the Japanese tradition of Nerikomi into a very postive direction, despite its decline alongside the loss of many other elder Japanese arts.
If I move to Japan and have the dosh I'd love to purchase a set made in this form: to support it and because it's amazing crafts-woman-ship!
On a side note, it's great that suddenly I was captured by this topic because I feel like there's so much to know about Japan that I'm completely clueless about. NHK seems to provide quite a few "fluffy puppy" documentaries but this one was quite honest and not really advertising Japan as so much just an observation. These kinda television shows I love because I don't feel like I'm being force-fed a load of biased sugarcoated trollop. Feibleman was very skilled - she has had her work in the New York Met Art Museum and many other places - and we were allowed to appreciate it impartially.
I must admit other documentaries probably aren't like this on NHK, but I'll do more research. You get the feeling with most nation-aligned broadcasters that their just boasting about how great their countries are. Comeon, we're more intelligent than that people!
Though I cannot complain really - at least I'm not in North Korea right now.
