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Recent Posts

  • Kikusumi: Chrysanthemum Charcoal by Kotani Yoshitaka August 19, 2023
  • The Saint John’s Pottery in Minnesota: An American Pottery Tradition August 1, 2023
  • Hyakunin Isshu Karuta No. 10 by Chieko July 22, 2023
  • New Quilts by Sarah Nishiura and Thoughts on the Humble Thimble June 17, 2023
  • Kajo Day: Wagashi Celebration in June June 10, 2023
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Top Posts & Pages

  • Basket Weave Patterns: Kikko, Ajiro, and Mutsume
    Basket Weave Patterns: Kikko, Ajiro, and Mutsume
  • Guide to Choosing Your Tea Whisk for Matcha
    Guide to Choosing Your Tea Whisk for Matcha
  • The Saint John’s Pottery in Minnesota: An American Pottery Tradition
    The Saint John’s Pottery in Minnesota: An American Pottery Tradition
  • Visiting Vietnam: Traveling in the Land of my Pottery Crush
    Visiting Vietnam: Traveling in the Land of my Pottery Crush
  • Visiting the Old Pottery Town of Bizen and Kurashiki Craft Show in Okayama
    Visiting the Old Pottery Town of Bizen and Kurashiki Craft Show in Okayama

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A Deeper Connection: Ceramics by Mitch Iburg

By:
Ai Kanazawa
July 25, 2018Ceramics Mitch Iburg

Ceramics by Mitch Iburg will be available in our shop from 9:00 a.m. July 25th 2018 ->

What sets the work of Minnesota potter Mitch Iburg apart from his contemporaries is a depth and intensity of effort that is profound but not immediately visible. While most potters begin their work by wedging their purchased clay in the studio, Mitch’s starting point is to go through local geological publications, survey maps, mining databases, and walking the terrain from where he acquires his materials to create his work.

Ash-glazed vessel by Mitch Iburg. By coil-building vessels, Mitch feels that he can add a sense of history through layers, similar to rock formations that document the conditions at the time they were deposited.

Many people might consider that going to such lengths of effort that Mitch does is pointless and conflicts with the more pressing need to be productive and efficient. But luckily Mitch doesn’t think so.

“I research and collect rocks, minerals and clays throughout Minnesota,” Mitch says. He gathers, tests, and prepares the clay all year around, which is at the heart of his work. Maintaining this commitment limits how much can be produced, but Mitch believes that it is crucial to know the origins and history of these resources to keep a strong connection to the natural environment that they came from.

Left: A clay exposure near the Minnesota River.   Right: Collecting felspathic sandstone  
Photos courtesy of Mitch Iburg
Crude kaolin from the Minnesota River Valley. Photo courtesy of Mitch Iburg
Test tiles made from blends of collected, unprocessed clay. Photo courtesy of Mitch Iburg

Mitch’s path to learning about clay began when he first saw Japanese anagama fired ceramics. “There was so much about them that I couldn’t quite grasp or understand, but I felt a strong, visceral attraction to them that compelled me to study wood firing and ceramics”, Mitch said.

It took a long time for Mitch to comprehend the appeal, but he recalls that, “one day, while working in the studio it finally hit me. I realized that it was like watching a tree swaying in the wind. The wind itself is invisible, but its power and movement become manifested and made visible by the branches and leaves. The vessels were similar to the tree in that they recorded the presence of larger phenomena – the passing of time, alteration of materials by heat, and the enduring life cycle of the Earth.”

Tea bowl by Mitch Iburg.

Mitch views his ceramic process as a tool for translating the sweeping and often unfathomable phenomena that have shaped our world into something tangible. Personally, I feel that the focused intension and stubbornness of Mitch in his approach allows him to create unparalleled work that speaks to us emotionally.

It also reminds me of the philosophy of tea that Okakura Kakuzo describes in his “The Book of Tea“, which is a “moral geometry, inasmuch as it defines our sense of proportion to the universe.” I feel that Mitch’s lifework is a similar effort to grasp that sense of scale.

Tokkuri by Mitch Iburg

Sincere, precious, yet humble, the attraction of Mitch’s work is similar to how I feel about the ancient unglazed pottery made in Japan called Sue ware from the 5th and 6th centuries. They were the first non-porous types of ceramics made in Japan, using the technique learned from the more advanced Koreans, who in turn learned it from the Chinese. Perhaps it is because in both Mitch’s work and Sue ware, I feel the earnest joy to create something hard and useful out of something that is soft and brittle found in nature.

In the past six years that I have known Mitch’s work, I have often wondered how long he would be able to continue to make pots in the way that he does. So, it is delightful to see that he has expanded his body of work such as the wheel-thrown tableware that intrinsically preserves a sense of connection to nature while allowing him to use a broader range of materials. He also recently was a recipient of the Jerome Ceramic Artist Project Grant from the Northern Clay Center to re-examine the role of natural materials in the field of ceramic art.

Wheel-thrown tea cups by Mitch Iburg. Creating food-safe vessels require the use of commercial silica and feldspar, but Mitch still researches the parent rock and only introduces materials that are closest to the region.

Mitch says that his development was helped by many of his fellow potters in the wood-fire community, which has forged a special symbiotic relationship between established and emerging artists. He points to artists like John Jessiman in Virginia, Nick Schwartz in California, and Samuel Johnson in Minnesota that have played crucial roles in helping his evolution.

I would like to think that Mitch’s approach is proof that nothing has fundamentally changed since the time of the Sue potters. That efforts that are seemingly invisible make all the difference over time, and from the seeds sown by a community that is willing to work together will emerge trees that will grow and sway in the wind for many generations to come.

Northern Minnesota landscape
Photo courtesy of Mitch Iburg

ENTOTEN’s first-ever brick-and-mortar gallery soft opens in San Diego

By:
Ai Kanazawa
July 5, 2018Topics

Entoten Gallery Closed in May 2020

July 2018 is a super-exciting month for ENTOTEN because after 6 years of being an online gallery, I just moved into an office suite in San Diego for the first time with a small physical gallery and space to hold workshops.

The new office is inside a business park next to the Amtrak coaster track. It is in an area called Bay Ho in San Diego, just east of Interstate 5 and across from Pacific Beach. It is also close to the new trolley line which took 30 years to get approved and will be up and running by 2021. Unfortunately, there is no stop in front of the gallery.

ENTOTEN’s new office (Address is 4907 Morena Blvd. Ste 1402, San Diego, CA 92117) is right by the coaster train tracks. There are also poles being built to accommodate the mid-coast trolley line expected to operate in 2021.

Sure, a beautiful gallery right on the beach or some fashionable retail district would have been ideal, but over the years, I became convinced that location is secondary to the importance of having an opportunity to show the beautiful work in person.

Cherry wood coffee scoops by Maeda Mitsuru in the ENTOTEN gallery. Over the last 6 years, Maeda-san has gradually revised and improved its shape. Next to it is a robot soldier card stand that my nephew gave me as a present after he visited Ghibli museum almost 5 years ago. “This is for you when you open your gallery,” he said. So here it is.

I learned this lesson by visiting numerous galleries in Japan, that are sometimes very small and not in the most convenient of locations. During the visits to these galleries, what stuck with me was the beauty of the items that the owners selected to display and the interesting conversations that I had with them. I hope that I’ll be able to create a unique space where we can share our interest and love for beautiful craft in San Diego.

“Eye opening” of the Tamashima daruma paper doll from Okayama prefcture. An eye is drawn to make a wish. I filled it with the hope to learn to see better, in reference to the “just look now” phrase that Yanagi Muneyoshi wrote to urge people to look at common handmade objects with fresh eyes and to discover beauty in our daily lives. 今見ヨ イツ見ルモ ima miyo itsu mirumo. The other eye is only drawn when the wish comes true.

The other benefit of my office location is that visitors will be able to park without the stress of finding a spot in car-crazy Southern California. And who doesn’t love watching the trains go by?

For July, I will soft open the gallery every Wednesday (July 11th, 18th and 25th) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on other weekdays and Saturdays by appointment only. I will focus my display items to things made of wood.  If you have specific pieces in my online shop that you would like to see, please notify me prior to your visit so that I can have them out for you.

I’m also planning on having a weekend ceramics event in August when I receive long awaited ceramic works by Hanako Nakazato, who is back in Maine! So stay tuned. In the mean time, please don’t hesitate to reach out and contact me at hello@entoten.com

ENTOTEN Gallery
4907 Morena Blvd. Suite 1402,
San Diego, CA 92117

Current Gallery Hours->

Click to see map->

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Studio Kotokoto is now closed. Thank you for your support over the years!
You have been redirected to Entoten, an online blog and shop that was created by one of Studio Kotokoto’s founders.
Orders received September 19th - October 8th will ship on October 9th. Thank you so much! -Ai