Descriptions

Bruce Chivers was born in Australia in 1954. Between 1972 and 1974 he was teaching and throwing in Adelaide. In the 1980s he encountered raku’s charm-the 'beauty of the accidental and spontaneous‘. In 1985 Chivers moved to Devon. David Leach helped him to find a workshop in Chudleigh which was set up 1986.

In 1990 Chivers started making raku porcelain. He taught at South Devon College as well as running his pottery when RAMM acquired this pot in 2017. Raku vessels were originally intended for tea ceremonies which combined Buddhist ideals with the everyday, in this case with the procedures of making and serving tea.

This porcelain vase, is called ‘Japanese Handle’. It is an abstracted form based on ‘Ikebana’ or flower arranging. One flower would grace the rim and taller stems would be supported by the handle. This handle is also a reflection of the Japanese gateway form which is seen at temples and shrines in Japan. Raku has been adopted by western potters as a firing method which allows exciting unpredictable surface effects to arise.




Inscription

BC (Bruce Chivers’ maker’s mark)



This object is not on display.