teabowl

The First Pots: Chawan and Guinomi

Here are some of the first pots to get cleaned up after the firing last week. I’ll post more over the next few days as I get things cleaned up.

Overall the firing went well, much better than the first two certainly. I’m finally starting to get a grip on how the kiln climbs, and learning not to worry about it too much. We fired both chambers this time and it took roughly 30 hours. Cone 10 flat in front, cone 9 touching in the rear, and cone 13 almost touching in the second chamber. The second chamber is a pleasure to fire, very relaxing after stoking the front. I think I can still get more aggressive with the front, taking the temp up even more, probably somewhere around cone 12 would be good for the rice straw ash glazes.

The intention was to drop cone 6 in the rear and call it quits, but it ended up getting hotter than expected, and the ware in front ended up a little too shiny. However, the middle and rear of the setting came out just about perfectly. Temp from top to bottom was quite even. We stopped stoking the second chamber when cone 11 dropped and clammed everything up after letting some of the excess heat out. Still, when I peeked in the next morning, that second chamber was still glowing, and cone 13 was mostly down. Guess that 1250kg of insulating castable does its job well.

Most of the failures this time around were caused by bad glazing, not the firing. Rice straw ash glazes were universally too thick, and an ash glaze I whipped up hoping to be a nice runny green ended up being a crusty reddish brown. Oops.

Ido bowls….のつもり．．．．

[Me] “Hi, I’m Mike. I’m an Ido Chawan addict.”

[Group]  “Hi Mike.”

So, in indulging my fixation, I had another try at Ido teabowls yesterday. Still not getting it somehow, but am happy with the bowls as bowls. One of the problems was the clay. Too nice, too smooth. It was recycled from some sandy stuff, but in recycling, much of the tooth was lost. I re-added sand, but not enough.

If I hurry, these might make it into the kiln for the Nov. 11 firing. Feldspar glaze, raw glazed and once fired. Who knows, perhaps some good could come of it after all…

僕は、とにかく井戸がすき。何時も諦めかけているが、やはり作ってみてしまう。　今回も何か井戸にとっては足りない。碗としては機能的だが．．．

今回の問題一つ：土　　良すぎて、砂気が足りなくて、削ったら面白くない。再生した土で砂気がなくなり、また足したが結局不十分だった。

急げば今度の窯に入りそう。長石釉、生がけで焼成。

 

Non saggar stuff

Some other things from the last firing included teabowls, sign post caps, katakuchi, and a lot of hammer fodder. Been having problems with my Chosen karatsu lately, the ame-yu is not playing nicely like it should, and this firing for the first time ever, I ended up with pinholing in my regular madara-yu. This is usually a very dependable glaze for me so I am kind of mystified and perplexed. The only difference from the usual was the clay, so I’ll start diagnosing the problem from there.

Karatsu Show

This last weekend we had the show in Karatsu.  It was a 3 day weekend, so we did Sat, Sun, Mon. Well, if you are thinking about having a show on a 3 day weekend, let me give you a little advice: don’t. Everyone goes somewhere else. The first two days were absolutely empty, and it was only the during the last day that I was able to make some good sales. Thanks to guests from Osaka, Kyoto, and Chiba. I guess they were using the 3 day weekend to get out of their respective areas as well.

Well, lesson learned. Overall, it was still a very enjoyable experience, with lots of time to sit and chat with friends over tea. The highlight of the show was without a doubt, the shiboridashi teapot with the river crab knob. It is a pure silver crab holding a ruby in his right claw.

Pictures from the latest firing

Below are some pictures from the latest firing (of the gas kiln). There were a few nice pots in the firing, enough to fill in the gaps with the show next week. Lost most of the chawan and guinomi, but got a couple of each that I like.

Chosen Garatsu (the runny white over brown) constantly reminds me that I need more practice. Just when I think I’ve got it down, it shows me just how much I don’t know.

Gallery

Rain, rain, GO AWAY…. REALLY!

It has been raining cats and dogs since this morning, and we must have gotten about 8 inches in as many hours. Unreal. It is the first time the water has risen in my kiln to a level that would affect pots if they were loaded into the first chamber. In the past it has always stopped short of the front floor but today it was a couple of inches deep in the front floor area.

At least I had good weather yesterday and into early this morning for firing the gas kiln. Turned off the kiln at around 5 am (fired for 18 hours) and when I woke up at 6, it was pouring. Later in the day, I peeked into the kiln when it was still around 700C. Snapped a couple of pictures, with and w/o the flash. The first glance doesn’t look too good. Ame yu was a bit too thin, I think, but won’t know for sure until I open the kiln up completely and have a good look. One thing I am happy about is that the new clay blend I was testing seems to have stayed together nicely, no bad slumping (a little slumping, I like).