Saturday, September 02, 2006

celadon not celedon

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=celadon
So for how many years have I been misspelling celadon? I was once a perfect speller, now my brain is overloaded with rock lyrics and dancing piggies, so all those 4th grade spelling lists are tossed onto the scrap heap.
OK, making today: so much stuff. Gotta throw bowls mugs and pigs, the usual suspects. BUT, I am glazing today too, and that is where our friend celadon with an A comes in. I mix all my glazes myself, from my own invented recipes, and I think they are pretty hot and won't share those recipes. Picture above. The master list is in a safe, no joke! I have 3 celadons, although it could be argued they are not true celadons, which is fine. One is called 'speckly celadon', which some people think is a a pale blue, but I have added copper and a tiny bit of cobalt, so I think it is an icy blue/green with tiny blue specks, shiny surface but opaque. 'Turtle celadon' is a transparent and shiny dark mossy green but very sensitive to thickness, so darker to lighter in spots. Good for textured pots. Most recent is 'Petey Poo Super Celadon'. Although opaque, it is also shiny with white streaks, but in my mind, the tone is closest to a true celadon. This glaze is a mix of what I call 'coke bottle celadon' and a bunch of other things I added recently to give the glaze visual texture: white streaks and spots in beautiful and subtle patterns. I developed it over YEARS and finally GOT IT the week my little dog Petey died just a couple months ago. Yes, I spent about 10 years tinkering with a glaze recipe and it is awesome, although the other 2 celadons are also beautiful.
SOOOO, in my mind, what is a celadon? They originated in the far East, Korea, China and Japan. Typically clearish and shiny, a pale, barely green with a bit of gray. It has become in recent years a very popular interior paint color, clothing color, and on pots for sale everywhere, even Target. My sister-in-law Abigail claims it is her favorite color, and her opinon has weight because she lives in Manhattan. When I was in college, my profs talked about celadon's fame in the east. Villages had their particular clan recipes and materials, secretly passed down to each generation, and there would be stories of raids and spying, trying to see how the other guys made it. My last pottery student at Cushing Academy was from Korea, and she gave me a gorgeous handmade vase, carried all the way from home by her parents at graduation (could I thank these people enough? I am unworthy!) and it is shiny, transparent, more grayish with a bare hint of green. It has been carved into floral patterns, which gives the glaze a chance to vary in thickness and appearance.
OK, that replacement sugar bowl for Sharon Arts center will be speckly celadon.

No comments: