Satake Chawan IV

Stoneware hand-thrown chawan (traditional tea ceremony bowl) by artist Akira Satake. The rim of the chawan is smooth, painted with a thick snowy Shino glaze. This chawan is the perfect balanced weight — light enough to handle with ease, heavy enough to have a presence in the hand. It is a visual and tactile delight.   The making of... Satake says of his work: "... the act of creation is a collaboration between myself, the clay and the fire. Collaboration means finding what the clay wants to be and bringing out its beauty in the way that the beauty of our surroundings is created through natural forces. Undulations in the sand that have been moved by the wind, rock formations caused by landslides, the crackle, and patina in the wall of an old house; all these owe their special beauty to the random hand of Nature. The fire is the ultimate random part of the collaborative equation. I hope the fire will be my ally, but I know it will always transform the clay in ways I cannot anticipate