Shino, a traditional high fire reduction glaze, has had little representation here at Texas Tech during the past few years. Deeply imbedded in a ceramic program primarily based around sculptural ceramics I can only ask the question, “Why Shino?”

Yet, the glaze of a thousand faces has caught our attention and has come to fascinate all of us. Stepping out of the zones in which we normally work, which are vast and many, there has been little, if any, focus on this versatile glaze.

Shino, with its 500-year-old tradition, is still just a child here in the Americas – having only been embraced and practiced since 1974. It was time for us young Tech ceramicists to take time to examine this surface more.

ShinoFest allows the opportunity for us as ceramic artists to slow down and look closely at a phenomenon that has captivated this nation and allows us to recontexualize ourselves yet once again. We do have familiarity with this glaze but of the hundreds of versions of it we know but a small facet of them.

For this festival of experience, we set out to see what this glaze can do to enhance our research no matter what our normal practices may be. As we shift from hand building, throwing, slip casting, and as we shift from low-, pit-, raku-, wood- and midrange firing to the intensely high fire of Shino, there is a need to experience Shino more personally then just through the work of others. It is time for each of us to get on the dance floor to see.

Ian F. Thomas
Exhibition Co-Curator
With Ian Shelley