Process
On the wheel
The throwing itself: stoneware centred, opened, and pulled, which is the half of the work a finished pot hides.
Studio ceramicist · stoneware and glaze
Hana Sekine
A pot is decided twice: once on the wheel and once in the kiln. Most of my work is making the second decision less of a surprise.
- Locality
- Hudson Valley, NY
- Status
- Taking commissions on a firing cycle
No. 001Description
I throw stoneware and develop the glazes that go on it, from one studio.
Known for
- Ash glazes
- Thrown vessels
- Glaze testing
Focus
- Stoneware
- Surface
- Firing
No. 002Field notes
Three years in a production pottery in Shigaraki taught me speed and repetition, which is not what people expect an apprenticeship to be about. I came back, spent two years on glaze chemistry at a community studio, and opened my own space in the Hudson Valley in 2019. The glaze library is at more than 200 tested surfaces now, and every one of them exists because a firing did something I did not ask for. I fire eight times a year and take commissions against that cycle, not against a calendar.
No. 003Collection record
2019 - present
Studio Ceramicist, own studio
Thrown stoneware, glaze development, eight firings a year.
2017 - 2019
Glaze chemistry, community studio
Two years of testing and record keeping.
2014 - 2017
Apprentice, production pottery, Shigaraki
Speed, repetition, and the wheel.
No. 004Specimens
Vessels
Vessel series
Tall thrown vessels in an ash glaze that breaks to iron at the rim, made in runs of six so the surface can be compared.
Ongoing since 2021
Firing
Unloading
The kiln opened: the moment the second decision becomes visible and half the shelf turns out different from the plan.
8 firings a year
Glaze
Glaze library
More than 200 tested surfaces pinned in a grid on the studio wall, each one a firing that did something I did not ask for.
200+ tested surfaces
Studio
Greenware
Unfired work drying on ware boards, where a run either holds its proportions across six pots or does not.
Commissions
Table sets
Commissioned bowl and plate sets made to a household rather than to a shelf, in celadon and iron speckle.
No. 005Measurements
Studio since 2019
Own space in the Hudson Valley
Trained 3 years
Production pottery in Shigaraki
200+ tested glazes
Studio glaze library, all fired and recorded
No. 006Exchange
Lot 01
Commissioned sets
Bowl, plate, and cup sets thrown and glazed to order, scheduled against the next firing.
Lot 02
Vessel work
Larger thrown vessels made in runs of six so the glaze can be chosen against real comparisons.
Lot 03
Glaze consulting
Testing and recording work for studios trying to make a surface repeatable.
No. 007Determinations
Det. 01
What does Hana make?
Thrown stoneware, mostly vessels and table sets, with glazes she develops and tests herself in a Hudson Valley studio.
Det. 02
What is she known for?
Ash glazes that break to iron at the rim, and a studio glaze library of more than 200 tested and recorded surfaces.
Det. 03
How does she take work?
On a firing cycle. She fires eight times a year and commissions are scheduled against a firing rather than a date.
No. 008Observations
Repetition is the apprenticeship
Three years of making the same cup is not drudgery. It is the only way the hand stops negotiating with the clay.
Record the failures
A test tile that came out wrong is worth more than one that came out as expected, as long as somebody wrote down what happened.
No. 009Accession
Herbarium·shown with a fictional demo record
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