Ikebana Story Or Let's Get The Lead Out

I have been a full-time production potter for 33 years, and am
well acquainted with the challenges involved in earning a living
from one's passion. I was therefore surprised and delighted six
years ago when I added Ikebana containers and flower cups to
my production line. Very quickly it became clear that I had
stumbled. upon products that sold very well. By including these
new items in my line I added over $20,000 to my gross sales in
the first year. It was exciting to have a "hot” item, especially one
which contributes beauty into the lives of people by encourag-
ing them to bring more flowers into their world!

However, my initial excitement turned to frustration as some of
my Ikebana containers started to be returned as defective.
Customers were unhappy that the pinfrog (the key component
to my products) was tarnishing very quickly and degrading the
appearance of both the flower cup and Ikebana containers.
After very little use they looked dirty and less appealing.

I searched hard for an alternative, but found that all manufac-
turers were using the outdated technology of imbedding brass
pins and casting molten lead around them. I found this to be
most disconcerting, since lead is known to be both a carcinogen
and a very toxic element to breathe in or to handle in any way.

Out of curiosity about how much lead was leaching from the
lead based pin frog to cause this deterioration in overall appear-
ance, standardized water samples were forwarded to The
Environmental Quality Institute for analysis. These water sam-
ples were taken after the leaded frogs were immersed in water-
filled Ikebana vases for 1.5 weeks. The results of these tests were
frightening and absolutely shocking!! The base line for accept-
able levels of lead in drinking water is 15 parts per billion. The
leaded pin frog water samples tested. out at a horrifying 4353

parts per billion.. over 290 times the safe established limit!! The
samples were considered by the laboratory to be severely con-
taminated! Subsequent samples were taken and resubmitted to
the lab for confirmation of the initial results. The results were
confirmed and the laboratory stated that they would do no fur-
ther testing of these source samples as their sensitive testing
equipment was being a damaged by such high lead levels!
Clearly, the decision to manufacture a stainless steel alternative
to this toxic lead pin frog made sense.

I began to manufacture these new pin frogs essentially by hand
and. demand quickly reached an unmanageable level. I was sim-
ply unable to produce them quickly enough to be even close to
cost effective.

At this point I was fortunate enough to meet a brilliant designer
and. production specialist who took an interest in the product.
He spent 16 months developing the required technology and
machinery to produce a state-of-the-art steel pinfrog. Now, as a
result of his efforts, we are able to offer customers a product
which won't tarnish or threaten the health of either the produc-
er or end-user of Ikebana related products. In addition, we use
finer and many more pins per unit than our competitors, which
allows the user to include even the most delicate stems in their
floral arrangements.

If you aren't yet riding the Ikebana wave, I invite you to join us!
If you are already creating Ikebana ware, I encourage you to use
our unique stainless steel pinfrogs to protect your health and
dramatically increase your bottom line. For more information
please go to our website at <http://www.pinfrog.com> or email
me at vijayal @telus.net

Vijaya Morrison

In my conversation with John Lawrence of Doda Antiques,
we talked about how useful it would be if there was a database
of chops and potters’ marks for BC potters. This would be a
great aid for collectors and researchers interested in pottery
and. would help to establish recognition of ceramics as an
ongoing cultural activity in BC. This year is the Guild's 50th
anniversary, and it brings home just how fast time passes, and
how quickly such knowledge can be lost altogether. We are
fortunate though - not so much time has passed - if we start
now, we have a good chance of starting a record that will go
back to the beginnings of pottery in BC.

Your humble editor has an interest in creating and. maintain-
ing databases, and so I've volunteered to be the contact person
to collect such data. I mentioned this to Debra Sloan and she
was excited about the idea, saying that the idea had come up
before but never quite got off the ground. If we can build up
a complete and ongoing record, then there is a good chance
that we will be able to publish the information in book form,
perhaps a book that gets updated every five to ten years. And
obviously we could publish information like that on our web-
site.

Potters’ Marks and Chops

What would be required would be a photo for each mark,
plus some minimal biographical information about the potter.
As well as pictures of the actual chop marks, Debra suggested
that we also collect the following biographical information:

-Date and place of birth,

-Where and when you were trained

-Type of work; ie functional, one of a kind, sculpture,
materials

-Awards, involvement in guilds, teaching

-Galleries; ie how many solo exhibitions and. where

-Collections

I encourage all BC potters to send me this data about their
own work. And I also ask that anyone who has knowledge of
older potters who are no longer practicing to make a special
effort to help us preserve this valuable information before it’s
too late.

To start, please send this information to me at: editor@bcpot-
ters.com.

Martin Hunt

March 2005

Potters Guild of British Columbia Newsletter