The blacks Claire Landais-Sauvage had previously achieved were always glossy. But with “Little raven” she was able to discover a serene satin finish. Making her glaze from iron stones she gathered from a former forge site, Landais-Sauvage glazed this hand-formed tea bowl and then fired it in her small Japanese charcoal kiln “Coeur de Braises.”

Using the hikidashi technique of removing the chawan from the kiln while glowing hot, she quickly submerged the bowl in ashes she’d gathered from her stove. The material reacted with the hot clay to make an instant glaze. The tea bowl’s surface emerged with a beautiful range of blacks, varying from satin to matte. It is like a raven’s dull-black beak and shiny black feathers.

From a young age Landais-Sauvage was drawn to clay, hand-forming bowls since the nine years old. She attended the Liceo artistico statale di Porta Romana in Florence and the École supérieure des arts décoratifs in Strasbourg, following a path of design, poetry, and storytelling.

But when she attended a Paris exhibit of Japanese Raku ware, the chawan by Chojiro cast a spell. Tea bowls, hand-formed from gathered clays and then fired in small kilns fuelled by wood and charcoal, had the potential to express her connection to the landscapes she knew in France.

Over the past five years, Landais-Sauvage has shown her work in galleries in Paris and Munich. And last year she held a solo exhibit in Kyoto at Gio-ji Arashiyama. Landais-Sauvage is currently participating in the Philadelphia International Tea Bowl Exhibition with three chawan on display.

New from the artist’s studio. Comes with Landais-Sauvage’s written account of the tea bowl’s making.