I made some movies:
- http://youtu.be/FkhGZV_EPwc About the exhibition.
- http://youtu.be/_F4vxCZ_DNQ About the historical surroundings of the show.

- http://www.flickr.com/photos/swanica/sets/72157628372545471/ A slideshow of the exhibition and the surroundings.

Tegelen is a village in the province of Limburg in the Netherlands. It was an independent municipality until 2001, when it was merged into the municipality of Venlo.
The name of the glacial era of Tiglian (part of the Pleistocene) is derived from Tegelen because of the many fossils found there from this era in the local clay.
During excavations in Tegelen Roman pottery and tile ovens were found. The Sint-Martinus church is mentioned in diocesan and monasterial archives dating back to the year 800. Because of its strategic location, various castles and reinforced farms were soon established. The most important of these were the Castle of Holtmühle (with the barn Tiendschuur) and the Munt. During the Middle Ages, there were several battles in and around Tegelen, because of its proximity to the walled city of Venlo.
Early in the 19th century Tegelen developed into a regional centre of industry. At first, tile and pottery factories were established, and later that century, metallurgy and tobacco factories. After 1900 agriculture was added to the mix. Pottery and related industries were very successful in Tegelen from 1750 until World War II. They specialized mainly in the low fire red earthenware with a lead glaze. The pots were decorated with slips in many colors and engraved.

The centuries old expertise in ceramics and pottery is kept alive by courses held in the ceramic center of Tiendschuur.

On March 11, 2011, Japan was hit by a significant earthquake.
The world-famous pottery village, Mashiko, about 90km northeast from Tokyo was also heavily hit and the potters’ houses, kilns, workshops and their works were severely damaged. Mashiko has a 10,000 year old pottery tradition, in this highly regarded pottery village in Japan.
Ceramics Center Tiendschuur Museum in the Netherlands is 75 years and treats its visitors on an exhibition of ceramics of 15 potters from this village from a country par excellence: Japan!
The Tiendschuur shows the finest ceramics in the world and supports its creators.
The proceeds from these exhibition sales go to the potters in Mashiko and the Mashiko pottery fund.

This Saturday I will go to Holland to be at the opening of the Exhibition of 15 Mashiko Potters in the Tiendschuur Ceramics Museum in Tegelen in the Netherlands. Through the hard work of quite some people it was made possible. But money is still very much needed. Please, find it in your heart to donate to this fund to save the village of Mashiko. I know it is not an easy time for everybody and it is present giving time. Please, see what you can do and look at the information for donations on the bank info picture.

“Happymaker” was started to bring people together with special interests in the art and bringing this art in all kind of representations, into the local community to be enjoyed and experienced by young and old: “making everybody Happy”! I had an exhibition during this festival in 2009.  Look in my archives for the Month of July, 2009.

I wish all the organizers and artists a wonderful exhibition and time together and I hope to join again next time. I miss it, but I am there in spirit.

I start losing my hair now. I know of course, this was going to happen and actually, I don’t really care so much. I have easy hair: short, a little wavy, just wash it and comb it and it looks fine. But still, it is a shock when you just can pull at your hair and it comes out with a hand full. I don’t have the courage yet to shave it all off and to avoid a mess with all hair around. Perhaps, after tonight if really my whole pillow will be full. Well, I am ready for it with my scarfs and hats and a wig!! Or just nothing if I can get use to it!

Two days ago at around this time 3pm I came out of surgery: a lumpectomy. The first thing I did was moving my arm to feel if it was bandaged and it was not! I am so happy about this and thankful, because this means that the cancer hasn’t spread to other lymph nodes. The day before the surgery they had injected my breast with a radioactive fluid which moved into my lymph nodes. In the morning they had inserted a wire in my breast under ultrasound guidance to find the mass, because it was not a lump. So, all kinds
The Zaimokuza beach of Kamakura, Japan.

of methods to help the surgeon with the removal of the mass. During the operation they checked some lymph nodes and would they have seen cancer cells, then they would have taken out more. Next Monday and Thursday they will have the results and we will know more about the treatment. I stayed one night in the hospital. My heart rate was quite low. Now, I’m at home and Adriaan takes great care of me!

Yesterday, I brought all my “Kamakura-Red” booklets to 3 Kamakura Bori Stores, the bookstore, a gallery and a museum  in Kamakura. Some friends are helping me with supplying the stores.

On my way back, I rode my bicycle on the grounds of the Hachimangu Shrine. There were so many tourists; unfortunately, almost all Japanese. I stopped at the pond where the overhang is blooming with the Wisteria flowers. A group of young women were eating their home made lunch bento boxes; so cute, small, beautiful and prepared with care! And they were happy to smile for me for the picture.


I didn’t have time to glaze and fire my kiln, but every day was filled.
I met some friends and I received some wonderful gifts: a beautiful kimono with about a thousand cranes on it and one thousand origami cranes folded into ten strings of 100 cranes. Incredible! The crane represents health, happiness and good luck. Lots of friends encouraged me and wished me well. Thank you all very much.

So, now this is what I have to do! Get better!

At the moment, there is also the Toki Ichi, the yearly May Pottery Festival in Mashiko from about 400 potters. We were amazed to see luckily so many tourists visiting this festival. But they were mainly all Japanese; no blue-eyed people around.

First, we arrived at the Togei Arts Center from Furuki-san. He made beautiful renovations at the Minshuku which had fully survived the earthquake, but the kilns were all damaged. Euan’s kiln was already repaired so people can start firing, and next will be Kusakabe-san’s kiln. His anagama was completely destroyed.

We had some lunch and met with Euan Craig who was manning his booth. He will help me still with the tour and interviews on May the 19 and the 20st of the Dutch journalist/magazine writers Yna and Mels and consequently, an exhibition in the Netherlands. But after the earthquake it takes on a whole different meaning and we are looking for other possibilities to make people aware of what happened in Mashiko and how to help them survive and continue the legacy of this incredible potters community.

Then we met with Ken Matsuzaki-san. I introduced Adriaan and he explained his idea how to help Mashiko and bring them out into the world. Luckily, Koi-san and one of the students helped with the translation.
After that, we went to Hamada Tomoo, the grandson of Hamada Shoji, and explained the same idea. They are very supportive but have to get used to the ideas.

A big shard pile at Matsuzaki-san’s place.

In the meantime, we saw the destruction of the kilns. Some were already cleaned up, but there was so much damage. Hamada Tomoo showed us the devastation of the Reference Museum of Hamada Shoji. Some potters were cleaning the bricks of the broken-down Noborigamas. So, much to do and the rebuilding of the treasure houses. The whole walls shifted. And so many of Hamada’s pots broken. But they had that all cleaned up and refreshed with other works from Hamada Shoji and Tomoo-san also had repaired some important plates from the collections.

Tomoo-san’s damaged salt kiln is already all cleaned up. Ready to build a new one.

Today, we met Fujiwara-san, Baba Yuchiko-san, the mayor Ohtsuka-san, and of course, Tsukamoto-san from the Toko Gallery and some other friends. So, we had quite a lovely day. We returned with the bus to Utsunomiya. We caught at 3:15pm the 2pm bus! Traffic was completely blocked in Mashiko.  It was that busy. The weather became cloudy and everybody of course started to leave at the same time. We got of the train in Tokyo to stay with my friend Lara and her wonderful family.

Adriaan and I are going for one week to Japan.

I am done with all the examinations. The second biopsy of a different mass, which they discovered in the same breast on the MRI, was negative: a fibroadenoma. But they discovered something one my bones. So, I had a bone scan. First, they inject you with some radioactive particles which circulate for 3 hours and are selectively picked up by the bones, before they scan. I was glowing all the time . Luckily, they also were all negative. They had seen my former fracture of my  right arm. So, no bone cancer.  My surgery will be May the 11^th. They will of course examine all the tissue and cancer and know if and how many lymph nodes are involved. This will direct my treatment. They also test the cancer for molecular markers to determine the prognosis and if my cancer will respond to a certain treatment. My cancer is Her2 positive. This means it is treatable with medication, but it is an aggressive cancer. Before I left for Japan (yesterday) I did all my preoperative exams like X-ray and blood work.

It is strange. It feels like it is happening to somebody else. Of course, I feel it when they draw my blood, but somehow it doesn’t hit me yet. Only it dawned more when I heard that I also need chemo therapy. At the moment, I still feel really good and happy and positive. We always bicycled down the hill for ¾ of an hour to go to Stanford Hospital and the way back home for about an hour up the hill gave a good work-out and building up my physical condition. The weather was also beautiful and not too hot, and the hills with nice young green leaves, grass and lots of wildflowers, smelled so fresh. Then I feel so lucky that I also live here and that I am being treated in one of the best hospitals. I have confidence and faith that everything will be alright.

Now I arrived in Japan. It is somewhat cloudy, but sunny and somewhat humid. Inside the train it is warm, because they don’t turn on the air conditioner yet. People are very welcoming and are glad to see you.

We will of course meet lots of friends. I will bring my “Kamakura-Red” booklet to the stores in Kamakura, the Kogeikan Museum and the Ginnosuzu Gallery. I advertise them in my booklet and they are going to sell it.

Then on Monday we will go to Mashiko with Steve Tootell and meet with Ken Matsuzaki, Tomoo Hamada, Euan Craig and some more people to see how the situation is in Mashiko and to see how we can help. Of course, I also will go to the Toko Gallery and we will sleep in the minshuku for one night at the Togei Arts Center of Furuki-san. There will be the yearly Tokiichi Pottery Fair in Mashiko of about 400 tents and 50 stores and it is Golden Week in Japan. The Golden Week is a collection of 4 national holidays within 7 days. So, many people will be on vacation or have some days of from work.

If you are interested and would like to order my booklet, please, click on the yellow tab of my Etsy Store here on this website.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99GyFmnH59s&feature=related









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