Here are the pots after firing:

Definitely not enough glaze flow and interaction on the plates, but the chosen garatsu came out pretty well overall, if just a bit too heavy with the rice straw ash glaze.  There should be enough for the upcoming show at Amabuki Sake Brewery. Tilting the plate up worked pretty well, next time I’ll have to try a higher angle, but how far without making it slide into the door during firing I wonder?

Here are before pics from the latest firing:

There are regular chosen garatsu pots, some madara, and a few saggar pieces.

When I was chopping wood the other day by the workshop I suddenly felt a burning pain on my arm, like I’d gotten too close to a blowtorch. I jumped about a foot, turned around, but there was just a small maple tree on that side of my work area. After looking harder I found this guy under a leaf.

These little guys are absolutely gorgeous, but really nasty if you brush up against one. Feels like a bee sting and a nasty burn all at once. I don’t know what they turn into, but if someone told me ‘fire breathing dragons’, I’d believe them. Found about 6 of them on various branches of the tree, and removed them. No more nasty surprises.

I uploaded some video to my website today. It’s a teabowl throwing demo by Korean artist Myeong Jaehyeon, who makes some mighty fine bowls.

http://www.karatsupots.com/featured.html

I’ll be posting more video to the same page in the upcoming days, as I get editing done.

Here is something a little different that a customer ordered: Fude arai, or wells for washing brushes.
In this case, the customer wanted them divided into 3 sections, and wanted two places for placing brushes. As you can see, I’m into fish right now since my Korea trip, so I keep playing around, sticking them on the rims. I like to think they are happy fish. These particular fish are mutsugoro, or haze, or mudskippers I think, in English.

I had recently lamented to a friend that it was uncool toting ware around in plastic crates, for example when taking samples to show or or finished ware to deliver. A few days later he mentioned that he had gotten his hands on some antique Tansu cheap on an auction. Four in all, and in pretty good condition. He brought over two for me, the ones that would be easiest to hold ware in, and carry around. You don’t often see these types in such good condition, all of the latches and locks still work.

The first has several drawers, the top of which has a latch and lock. The bottom drawers do not, save the bottom left which does. The drawers which do not have latches are held closed during transit by means of the locking vertical bar, which when removed allows access to the drawers.

Then next is an apothecary’s cabinet, with a swinging door. It is deeper than wide, with long, deep drawers.

There are rings on the side because there used to be shoulder straps. The owner could tote the box around like a backpack, and take the products to the customers. It also has a set of rails around the top surface, creating a work or display surface in which you don’t need to worry about anything falling off. 

Here are some closeups of some of the hardware.

My friend got these on an auction for about $100 each. An amazing bargain.