yunomi

Processing Clay

I was lucky enough to find some easily accessible clay the other day on a morning bike ride. I’ve been spending some time processing it and thought I’d share. Here’s the hill and the pictures of the bagged clay:

 

After bringing it home, I transferred it to large jars and added water, then mixed violently with a drill mixer to break it all up.  After skimming off the junk that floats up, I mix it up a few times a day for about 3 days. Once it is mostly made into a slurry I start sieving it into another container. Whatever doesn’t pass the sieve goes back in the jar to get mixed again, and it eventually (mostly) all breaks down.

Since I have no space for a large clay drying platform, I’ve decided to try these pantlegs tied off, filled, and left to hang. Seems to be working so far, and I’m hoping to get a nice uniform sausage of clay with no dry edges. I tried a few methods to close the bottom. First, I tried sandwiching the pantleg between two pieces of wood and using screws to tighten them together. This worked, but left sharp screw ends, and when I dropped one full leg, the wood snapped and it opened up, spilling the clay.  Plywood might prevent this. Being too lazy to get out the saw and cut more wood, I decided to split what I had into thinner pieces and wire them together to bind the folded over leg end. I tied them with wire and it seems to be working just dandy. Later, when I have time, I’ll try  finding some sort of non rusting clamp device that can be applied and removed easily and quickly.

Once the legs were filled, tying them off was tricky because a leg full of clay slurry is FRICKIN HEAVY!!! First I tried rolling it down over the rope and tying, which works fine but is kind of tricky and if you don’t do it tightly, it unwinds and makes a mess. I found the best way was to twist the end and bend it over a stick, then bind it with rope. This way, you can use the stick as a handle to carry the leg which is very nice, and the stick can be used to hand the bag. The rope used to bind the end can also serve as a hanger. I hung up 12 of these yesterday, and am now waiting for them to firm up. I’m curious to see how long it will take.

Some brush deco for spring

These are some of the new patterns I’m playing with for the spring firing. There is much inspiration to be had from old Shino and Oribe work. 

  
Many people don’t realize there was a great deal of cross pollination between Karatsu and Oribe in particular. There is also evidence that Furuta Oribe came to Taku at one point: one historical document mentions his name, and there are shards from the ruins of Taku Koraidani kiln that show very ‘Oribe-ish’ decoration, as well as most of a kutsugata bowl which is quite obviously made for tea ceremony. 

  
Last year I bid on a small old Shino piece being auctioned (I bid about ¥12000, and didn’t win. The winning bid was ¥52000) the reason I wanted it was that it had a wisteria decoration on it that was virtually identical to some of the Taku Koraidani shards.   

Rice plants and horse tails are both representative of Karatsu brush deco.     
The birds separated by a line bisecting the dish is a typical motif in the Taku pot shards.  
  

Below is one of the pieces that I’ve started experimenting with this year. I really like Japanese brushwork but I don’t have the decades to study it for my pottery, and I’d feel bad doing a crappy job of it. I decided to try writing English with a brush, with little regard for the shape of the letters, rather letting the flow of the patterns emerge with soft, quick uninterrupted strokes. It’s intended to be gestural more than anything else, since it is quite difficult to read even if you know what it says. It has been a big hit with customers so far, and many people have thought it was Japanese script. 

This cup says: “Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.” It’s a quote by 11th century mathematician and poet Omar Khayyam. This is actually more legible than some of the other pieces I’ve done. 

   
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Gas Firing 2016.02.20 Comments and Notes

This firing of the kiln went too long, resulting in Orton cone 11 flat.  Ideally, it would be cone 11 touching, then sagging a bit.

Upon unloading the kiln this morning, one thing was immediately apparent: the right side was far more reduced than the left. Yellower glazes and more slumping. Even on the left side there was some slumping, because of the excessive temp., and because of the clay which contained some low temp high iron clay to help seal the ware against leakage.

Left side, sagging only slightly, white surface.
Left side, sagging only slightly, white surface.
Right side sagging badly, white glaze turned yellow.
Right side sagging badly, white glaze turned yellow.

Chosen Karatsu came out pretty good, but the white was on too heavy, running down the pots too much.  It still came out looking ok because of the clay.

Most of the teabowls warped or sagged, so I only get to keep 2 or 3 of the 15. This is why teabowls are expensive, kids…IMG_3399 IMG_3398

All in all, not a bad firing, but need to adjust clay bodies, and pay closer attention to cones. Also, figure out the over reduction on the right side. It might be that one burner that sounds a bit off.

Kakewake CG bowls
Kakewake CG bowls
guinomi, need more sand in the clay
guinomi, need more sand in the clay
crystals, only grew on the right side, where reduction was strongest.
crystals, only grew on the right side, where reduction was strongest.
cylindrical tea bowls
cylindrical tea bowls
yunomi
yunomi
shells on feet
shells on feet

IMG_3437

saggared and much improved.
saggared and much improved.
porcelain, saggared
porcelain, saggared

IMG_3464 IMG_3463 IMG_3462 IMG_3460 IMG_3459

 

2015 Christmas Firing

was a real nail biter.  At 4am, 10 hours into the firing, I realized that I had not gauged my propane reserves properly, when I looked at the tanks and realized that they were only about 1/5 full and covered with a thick layer of ice. I immediately put the water hose on them to melt the ice and keep them from freezing again, then I chewed my nails until 8:30 am when I could finally call the gas company for fresh tanks. They arrived just after 9am, and good thing to because I only had about 2 inches of fuel left in the tanks at that point.

The firing ran a total of about 18 hours, which is fairly normal for this type of firing, and most things came out ok, with a few exceptions:

Fall Open Studio

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

Rainy Season Is Here

A lot has happened over the last month since the Karatsu pottery festival, mostly cleaning, shelf building, and shifting things around in the studio in preparation for the open studio event which happened this last weekend from June 19th to June 21st.

In rough chronological order, here is what has happened in May:

Plates formed over wood slabs of various sizes

Paddled slab plates en masse...
Paddled slab plates en masse…

We got our garden planted and our first Jalapenos soon followed!

This year's small Jalapeno crop. Not many, but it's a start.
This year’s small Jalapeno crop. Not many, but it’s a start.

Another type of crop: Good batch of Madara Karatsu guinomi from late April firing. Body is mostly crushed sandstone with a bit of native low iron clay to help keep things together.

Madara Karatsu guinomi from spring gas firing.
Madara Karatsu guinomi from spring gas firing.

In prep for the open studio event, I cleaned the deck and brickwork of the backyard. I did not realize just how overgrown with algae and moss it had become until it was clean again.

The deck and bricks after being power washed. Almost like a new backyard.
The deck and bricks after being power washed. Almost like a new backyard.

One of the worst sections, but it felt really cathartic blasting all of that green away, leaving nice clean trails of clear, brown wood.

Before After pic of the deck, what a difference!
Before After pic of the deck, what a difference!

Entrance to the yard event space, tents and blue tarps up to  keep out the rain. Luckily, although it threatened a few times, it never really rained, and the last day was actually sunny and hot. This is  the middle of monsoon season folks, we totally lucked out.

Emeth and Shimauchi san's burgers. Best burgers in Nagasaki. Best burgers in Saga for 3 days only.
Emeth and Shimauchi san’s burgers. Best burgers in Nagasaki. Best burgers in Saga for 3 days only.

The spot for gamblers. 500 yen per turn, no losers. One grand prize, 15 second place prizes, 25 3rd place prizes, and 100 4th place prizes. One grand prize went out every single day of the 3 day event. Happy customers!

Pot lottery wheel. No losers here, everyone walks away with a pot, some better than others...
Pot lottery wheel. No losers here, everyone walks away with a pot, some better than others…

This discount table was a new strategy for me. Turned out to be great for turning older pots into cash and additional storage space in my studio showroom.

My discount table, holding everything I haven't sold in 6 years that I couldn't bear to hammer. I think about 300 of these pots found new homes.
My discount table, holding everything I haven’t sold in 6 years that I couldn’t bear to hammer. I think about 300 of these pots found new homes.

Knife and tool maker, really nice stuff for reasonable prices

Knives and tools from Matsubara forge, in Nagasaki.
Knives and tools from Matsubara forge, in Nagasaki.

Really big caterpillar!

A friend I discovered during the open studio event. Never seen one like this before.
A friend I discovered during the open studio event. Never seen one like this before.