Fall 2015

has been busy.

I’ve gotten pretty far behind keeping up with the blog, falling into the bad habit of making small posts to Facebook. One of my areas of increased effort over the next year will be to work more on maintaining the blog, and getting it more integrated with other forms of social media. Trying to keep track of them all is like trying to herd cats.
I had made one promise to show before/after pictures for a couple of pieces, the first of which is the slab/paddle built sake chiller w/ feet and lugs:

Fired piece, Chosen Karatsu style glaze. Matchbook for scale.

Underside detail. Fired on shells, feet not touching the shelf.

The other thing I’ve been working on since early this year is getting a usable kohiki/clear glaze combination, because for some reason a lot of customers have been requesting white work. They have also been requesting black, so I’ve been working on getting a reliable semi matte black glaze. Mission not quite accomplished, but I feel I’m most of the way there. Here is the kohiki I’ve come up with and I am happy with it:

Kohiki cups. Cup on the left is unused. Middle has been used a bit, and right has been used a lot. The patina is beautiful in my opinion, and the fineness of the crackle is something I’ve been wanting for a long time in my work.

Various guinomi from 2015, mostly from the fall firing. Guinomi make great gyokuro drinking cups.

The other thing I have started doing is Japanese kana inspired brushwork, except with English. This cup is decorated with vertical English writing, a Goethe quote I like: “Whatever you can do, or think you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” One of the other said: “Don’t be a dick.” These were more popular than I had anticipated and are currently sold out. Definitely making more!

Here are some of the pieces with the new black glaze. It seems to look best thin, and as with most glazes looks nicer over interesting wild clays rather than processed clays.

Type 1 semi matte black Katakuchi with black lacquer repairs.

Semi mmatte type 2: two black glazes layered — matte type 2: two black glazes layered, makes a fatter glaze surface.

Fall Open Studio

Just a short post of some pictures from the studio sale this weekend.

The other thing I have started doing is Japanese kana inspired brushwork, except with English. This cup is decorated with vertical English writing, a Goethe quote I like: “Whatever you can do, or think you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” One of the other said: “Don’t be a dick.” These were more popular than I had anticipated and are currently sold out. Definitely making more!

Chosen Karatsu Slabs

I had to make a batch of slab plates after the fall wood kiln firing, because every one of my slabs cracked in that firing. Turns out the clay I used was high in silica, and didn’t agree with the long wood kiln firing. The silica turned into cristabolite, and all pots made with that clay experienced shivering, or cracking, no matter what glaze they were paired with, and across a range of temperatures.

Forward a few weeks, and I’m frantically trying to get some replacement plates fired because this weekend is the fall open studio event, followed by an exhibition in Nagasaki during the first week of Dec.

For the most part this firing went well, aside from the fact that I exploded my large platter. Drat.

Sploded plate. Miraculously it is in one piece (sort of).

oval slab plates, a few with small cracks

small slabs with 4 types of ash glazes intermixing

Fall 2014 Wood Firing Continued

The unloaded pots have now been hammered, moved inside the studio, or are getting refired. The ones that have been moved inside the studio are starting to get cleaned up and polished, in preparation for next spring’s shows.

All in all, there were some 750+- pots in this load. I’m not sure of an exact number because I started smashing before I had a count.

Here are some of the pots that I started cleaning up today. Most of them are small dishes, ranging from 10 – 17cm across. All sizes listed are width, and are approximate measurements.