In 1972 Rostislav Eismont received a Louis Comfort Tiffany Apprenticeship grant to study at John Glick’s Plum Tree Pottery in Farmington, Michigan. A three-year residency at the Penland School in North Carolina followed that apprenticeship. RED MILL POTTERY, featuring a variation of the Phoenix fastfire kiln, was established in Peekskill, New York in 1980. In 1985, a move to New Hampshire to work with Gerry Williams as Art Director of STUDIO POTTER magazine held promise of a new studio in rural NH. Over the ensuing years, ground water limited construction of a kiln. A meeting with Malcolm Wright provided a chance to be on the Turnpike Road wood-firing crew. In 2015 after thirty-five years as Art Director of STUDIO POTTER magazine, new editorship resulted in a renewed opportunity for making pots. There are times when a choice is made for one... serendipity, fate, whatever... my love of art/design/magazines remains true.
My interest has been and remains to explore the dynamics and range of function within a particular form and to present a group with either subtle or quite distinctly differentiated personalities. As with my PAINTING, this approach supports process and a desire to understand and view my work with the eye of a perpetual beginner. Working on a Leach treadle-wheel (image above) allows for and actually encourages the resulting work to appear both casual and refined at one and the same time. The American potter Warren MacKenzie, along with the English author-potter Bernard Leach, and the Japanese potter Shoji Hamada have been primary references. They, along with historic Korean, Chinese, and Japanese pots remain a touchstone for exploration. Available recent work, along with work by other potters whose work I have acquired for study, is available in A POTTER’S COLLECTION.
A small Mashiko slip and wax resist covered jar from the early 1980s. Wood-fired at Red Mill Pottery, Peekskill NY.
A grolleg porcelain bowl from the early 1980s Red Mill Pottery, now (2023) in a private collection in Maine, copper wash with clear glaze and underglaze pencil drawing.
A small "tea bowl" made in my Peekskill Red Mill Pottery and fired in the wood kiln at that site. This small bowl is unique in that it features a painted pattern I never repeated. As such it is a one-of-a-kind. Today, in July of 2023, it remains an important object (at once simple and enigmatic) from my hand. Shino glaze with an Albany/Cobalt decoration.
ABOVE: Porcelain Tea bowl in use in the collection of Lissa Streeter, Paris, France. (wood-fired, copper wash with clear glaze and underglaze pencil drawing).
ABOVE: Tea bowl in use in the collection of LaMonte Heflick, Indiana. (wood-fired, shino with Mac's deco glaze).
Yunomi in the background is also a recently made (2018) piece (shino. white slip and finger wipes)
ABOVE: Bowl in use in the collection of David Williams, NYC. (wood-fired, Mashiko slip)
LEFT: VASE (KENZAN/POLLACK), wood-fired, slips
CENTER: BOWL, wood fired, colored slips, notched cut foot
RIGHT: TEA BOWL, wood-fired, multiple slips, notched cut foot, celadon
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LEFT: COVERED JAR, raw wood-fired, rope decorated, slips. ca mid-1990s
CENTER: TEA BOWL, multiple firings, Shino, ca. late 1980s (exhibited in American Shino, Baltimore and Houston, 2013 (tribute to Malcolm Davis)
RIGHT: TEA POT (KENZAN/POLLACK), wood-fired, multiple slips, ca. 1995 (private collection)
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LEFT: FACETED VASE, raw wood-fired, multiple firings, Shino, exhibited in American Shino, Babcock Gallery (2001), NYC and Fitchburg Museum (2002) (private collection)
CENTER: COVERED JAR, temmoku, faceted. ca 1984
RIGHT: TEA POT, wood-fired, Oribe style, ca. 1980s, collection of John Bullard, New Orleans LA
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LEFT: PITCHER, raw wood-fired, colored slips, multiple firings
CENTER: PITCHER, chun glaze, private collection
RIGHT: COVERED JAR, raw wood-fired, rope impressed surface.
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LEFT: YUNOMI, thrown, partial facet, straw ash glaze with temmoku, 2016
CENTER: GUINOMI, thrown, fluted, chun glaze, 2016, (private collection)
RIGHT: BOWL, thrown, raw wood-fired, natuaral ash glaze, ca. 1990s, collection of Joe Schumacher, Sacramento CA
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