There is life in pottery beyond the gas kiln and the white china coffee mug.
Pottery began in open fires. The Berkshires shelter potent forms of this art. Interlaken Art School in Stockbridge teaches Raku firing. Michael Marcus of Monterey fires his pottery in several thousand cubic feet of flame. Marcus has developed two businesses, or two art forms, side by side: Joyous Spring Pottery, and Bizen Japanese Restaurant and Sushi bar.
Marcus practices the 1,000-year-old art of yaki-shime, unglazed stoneware pottery colored by fire. Yaki-shima pottery is fired in the Bizen Nobori Gama, a multichambered climbing kiln, 43 feet long, eight feet wide, beneath its own shed. It was named, like Marcus’ restaurant, for the Bizen province of Japan, where it was born. Marcus’ Bizen Nabori Gama fires 1,500 pieces, once a year.
In Japan, he said, yaki-shima pottery appears on tables and in tea ceremonies, and holds ikebana, flower arrangements. Marcus serves his customers on his own bowls and platters. He displays urns three feet tall, and sets flowers in his own hanging vases.
The watertight nonporous stoneware is mottled rust, russet, black and silver.
wood ash liquefies into a natural glaze. Marcus wraps some pots in rice straw that burns away, leaving dark fire mark patterns. He buries other pieces in embers for a roughened surface, or shovels charcoal over them. He uses 15 different firing techniques, he said. “The firing process is so monumental ... †it unleashes such vast forces of nature. There is only so much room for experimenting with a raging inferno.
The Bizen Nobori Gama is made of 10,000 firebrick and reaches temperatures over 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit. It is fired continuously for 10 days, heated by hardwood. Marcus said he goes through 10 to 12 cords of wood at a firing. Afterward, the kiln takes a week to cool and a week to unload.
Marcus has been a full-time potter since 1971. He studied wood-fired pottery four years in Japan. “They didn’t teach you much,†he said; he watched and worked. “It was a total immersion in the Japanese culture.†He spent time with kiln builders and potters both. When he had served this apprenticeship, he came to the Berkshires, and began to build his own kiln in 1981. He first fired it in 1984. He opened Bizen in 1986.
The restaurant came about through the Japanese connection between pottery and food, Marcus said; the Japanese traditionally believed that the taste of food was in the pottery. Presentation was a part of the experience of eating. “To put beautiful food in pottery changes the whole nature of the cuisine ... it would be like eating from a Van Gogh painting,†he said. Sushi is arranged so beautifully; the experience is exponentially more powerful when it is arranged on a beautiful serving dish.
Bizen is 90 percent organic. Marcus uses high quality fish and sake, and makes unusual sushi rolls, for example lobster, crab, and scallops. The restaurant is developed around the tea ceremony, Marcus said. It — the room, the wood beams, the furniture — is made from natural materials. Along one wall there are Tatami rooms with real mats. As with his pottery, he decoration is minimal. In Japanese tradition, he said, fine dining is about enjoying food and company.
Raku, Markus added, was developed in Japan in the 16th century, to produce black tea bowls for the tea ceremony. Raku pieces are porous and glazed.
Like Interlaken in Stockbridge, a pottery in upstate New York holds a Raku firing every August. The outdoor kilns look like upside down, insulated wire waste baskets. They sit on brick bases. Flames shoot from holes in the top, invisible during the day, but enough to burn the eyelashes off of anyone who leans to close to peer in. The potter lifts the kiln top off the bricks, and lifts out red hot pots with a pair of tongs. Their glaze is liquid. They look like molten glass.
The potter plunges pots and bowls into metal bins of sawdust or newspaper shavings and puts lids over them. The shavings burn quickly and oxidize the glaze. Raku pieces have a brittle, iridescent sheen. Some glazes crackle into long, fine lines. Some turn copper, electric blue, green, pink, colors out of insect wings and oil slicks. Unglazed clay will come out black.
The potter takes a partly cooled bowl out of the sawdust, maybe a half an hour after it went in, and sluices it in water. If the inner and outer surfaces are wetted at the same time, and the heat kept even, the bowl will not crack. The process is too stressful for large pieces.
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Berkshire County Homes Celebrating Holiday Cheer
By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
There's holiday cheer throughout the Berkshires this winter.
Many homeowners are showing their holiday spirit by decorating their houses. We asked for submissions so those in the community can check out these fanciful lights and decor when they're out.
We asked the homeowners questions on their decorations and why they like to light up their houses.
In Great Barrington, Matt Pevzner has decorated his house with many lights and even has a Facebook page dedicated to making sure others can see the holiday joy.
Located at 93 Brush Hill Road, there's more than 61,000 lights strewn across the yard decorating trees and reindeer and even a polar bear.
The Pevzner family started decorating in September by testing their hundreds of boxes of lights. He builds all of his own decorations like the star 10-foot star that shines done from 80-feet up, 10 10-foot trees, nine 5-foot trees, and even the sleigh, and more that he also uses a lift to make sure are perfect each year.
"I always decorated but I went big during COVID. I felt that people needed something positive and to bring joy and happiness to everyone," he wrote. "I strive to bring as much joy and happiness as I can during the holidays. I love it when I get a message about how much people enjoy it. I've received cards thanking me how much they enjoyed it and made them smile. That means a lot."
Pevzner starts thinking about next year's display immediately after they take it down after New Year's. He gets his ideas by asking on his Facebook page for people's favorite decorations. The Pevzner family encourages you to take a drive and see their decorations, which are lighted every night from 5 to 10.
In North Adams, the Wilson family decorates their house with fun inflatables and even a big Santa waving to those who pass by.
The Wilsons start decorating before Thanksgiving and started decorating once their daughter was born and have grown their decorations each year as she has grown. They love to decorate as they used to drive around to look at decorations when they were younger and hope to spread the same joy.
"I have always loved driving around looking at Christmas lights and decorations. It's incredible what people can achieve these days with their displays," they wrote.
The Wilsons' invite you to come and look at their display at 432 Church St. that's lit from 4:30 to 10:30 every night, though if it's really windy, the inflatables might not be up as the weather will be too harsh.
In Pittsfield, Travis and Shannon Dozier decorated their house for the first time this Christmas as they recently purchased their home on Faucett Lane. The two started decorating in November, and hope to bring joy to the community.
"If we put a smile on one child's face driving by, then our mission was accomplished," they said.
Many homeowners are showing their holiday spirit by decorating their houses. We asked for submissions so those in the community can check out these fanciful lights and decor when they're out.
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