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Love. Japan.

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“My love for Japanese pottery is born out of my own natural inclinations. I love natural materials, and the mad scientist in me sometimes just wants to see what will happen with those materials, so I’m constantly experimenting.  I love the idea of transmuting these base materials into a different kind of gold.  It just so happens that the Japanese aesthetic accommodates my approach to clay, and it’s a fun coincidence that I was born in Japan.”​
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“Tea bowls, as simple and easy as they sound, are actually very challenging. The clay can't be too thick, or it will be too heavy.  It can't be too thin, or the tea will burn the hands of those drinking from it. It must weigh under a pound. You have different parts, such as the lip, which needs to be smooth enough to drink from.  You also have the chasen whisking area and the cha’ damari, where the left-over tea pools like rain in the mossy depression of a stone. My favorite part of a chawan is the kodai and kodai-uchi, the foot of the teabowl where I like to create an indentation to place two fingers when holding the bowl.”​
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“Mixing sand, stones, and other materials into the clay is not uncommon in Japanese ceramics. A common technique is to put chunks of feldspar or other rocks into the clay. It's called ishihazi, where stone bursts out to create a star effect as the clay shrinks around the rock. Then, once you get into the upper temperatures the stones may start to melt, sometimes they’ll shoot right down the sides. I love this because if you use something rich in iron and manganese it'll just be this metallic sparkly ooze.”​
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“The black glazes are like dark mountainsides and when they shimmer, they are like the night sky.”
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“I use stones I pick up while I’m out in the woods. It gives me a way to bring my time in the woods into the studio in a very direct way. I want something that looks like it’s ancient, like it’s been dug up from somewhere and has a landscape of estranged history.”
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“When I discovered Japanese ceramics, I sensed my work up to that point was similar to an orphan raised in the woods who had suddenly stumbled upon a place which felt like it always should’ve been home. It changed everything as my pottery work found both home and purpose. “
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“Mizusashi, or water jars, hold a fascination over me. There’s something fun and mysterious about a form that exists for the sheer purpose of holding hot water. I think of the little hot springs from some of my hikes in Washington state where water bubbles up from the rocks or where water pools inside tree stumps.”
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“I love making hanaire, or flower vases, because there is so much sculptural freedom to be had.  On one hand I feel it’s important that the vase can feel complete on its own, but on the other it’s also just as important that its presence doesn’t outshine the flowers it’s meant to present.  There’s a harmony that must be achieved and it’s a challenging one because you have to imagine what flowers might be put into the hanaire.”
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“One of my favorite glazes is a white oni-hagi glaze. For me, it’s the froth of the ocean crashing upon a rocky shore, the snow upon boulders or mountains above the treeline. All these landscapes are some of my favorite places in Washington state.”
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Japanese Story

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“My seal for pottery is different from how I sign my sculpture work.  Having adopted the Japanese pottery tradition as part of my own I wanted a seal that reflected this.  There is a Japanese story called “The Grasshopper & The Bell Cricket” where the girl in the story is given a grasshopper but discovers that it’s a bell cricket, which is far more special.  Growing up I was also nicknamed “Cricket” because of my last name. So, the kanji I use in my seal are “Grasshopper & Bell Cricket”.  I like to think that amongst all the “grasshopper pots” I make, that someone will come upon a “bell cricket” to make their own.”
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Japanese Stories

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JK Crockett