Here are some pics of my display at the Mingei show. All the potters picked a display spot roughly this size and used the furniture and other objects at the gallery to create a display. Really fun!

You can probably tell from the display, but I really liked the old wagon wheels. The shino teabowl shown near the bottom sold on the opening night, which was a nice surprise.

This last week was the Glenn Richards Mingei Pottery Show. Lots of fun and met lots of great people. This was the card from the show. My E-Madara Karatsu Mizusashi made the card, quite a surprise there.
Pictures of the work from the show coming soon…

Well, I’ve been thinking about how tricky it is to re-center a bat on the wheelhead with a half made piece on it without batpins.

My bats are all handmade from cedar planking, basically a flat bat with bar-like legs attached cross grain to prevent warping. I take four blobs of soft clay and stick the bat to the wheel head. Works like a charm, simple and cheap. Except, if you’re making a big piece and it needs a rest, you’re stuck with an occupied wheel head. Taking the bat off can be done but getting the piece centered again later is a bitch.

I was at the hardware store the other day and noticed some cabinet shelf pins. The pins screw into sleeves which are countersunk into holes in the workpiece, and I thought AHHHH!

With my trusty drill I put the holes in the wheelhead after establishing the best location. Tapped in the sleeves and added a dollop of glue to each hole, then screwed the pins in. Next, drilled my bats to fit the pin configuration. It took all of about an hour to set it all up. I’m looking forward to trying out the new system. After the clay blob method, I’m feeling positively modern….

Here is a rosewood lid on a madara karatsu sake cup.