In 2012 we did an exhibition of plate and bowl sets with Omen-Azen in New York City. When we were working on the calendar/catalog Mikio felt that each set should have a poetic name. Warren and I tended to give our pots pragmatic names like fat vase or iron brush strokes. Mikio suggested thunderstorm or moon vase. We had to listen hard to hear the names the plates used to refer to themselves. Since that year we have tuned our ears to hear the names of the pots.
Give me the names for things, just give me their real names,
Not what we call them, but what
They call themselves when no one’s listening —
-Charles Wright, from The Writing Life, in “Appalachia,” Farrar, Straus Giroux, 1998