On April 14 I went to Kusakabe-san’s place to fire a wood kiln together and at the end at high temperature we threw salt into the kiln and got some beautiful results. Quite a small effective kiln and hardly any smoke. The fire box. View of the glow of the fi ... Continue Reading
On May 9th, the day after I arrived from Japan, Kusakabe-san and Marc Lancet opened their show at the Trax Gallery in Berkeley, California. http://www.traxgallery.com/ Before the opening reception they held a Tea Ceremony workshop. The participants made their walk to the ceremony ... Continue Reading
Some other people, 2 couples, came to stay at Kusakabe-san while I was there and we had some good times together. It was wonderful to get to know Yasmin. She is an English teacher and painter and takes care of a lot of things around the house. Yasmin, Leni and Jessica dressed up ... Continue Reading
The firing started at 5pm in the evening and was done the next day at 6pm. We stoked a lot of wood. Here we stoke wood in the firebox from Kusakabe-san’s old house! Keeping track of the temperature. No smoke at all from the biggest chimney! Smokeless!!!! Finally, we add ... Continue Reading
Kusakabe-san has 7 kilns on his site. This time we will fire part of an updraft built kiln. The work I threw yesterday is still too wet, but three plates from last year will be fired now. We put straw on and around the plate in the back. Straw has a high silica content which wil ... Continue Reading
It is evening and I hear the frogs croak really loud like a whole orchestra! I arrived here in Miharu, Fukushima last Tuesday to work, throw some pots, at Kusakabe-san’s place and fire a kiln. Miharu means “Three spring”: the first 3 blossoms in spring are: plum ... Continue Reading
The last day we finished several projects and raku fired our glazed pots. Steve explains how the procedure goes. Steve starts the gas firing.The temperature will be at 900 Celsius in 1 hr. Almost ready for take out. Jennifer taking out pots. You put the pots in a trash can. ... Continue Reading
After returning to the International School of Sacred Heart we glazed bisques pots for the raku we would do the next, last day. Kusakabe-san showed us how. In the evening we enjoyed our last dinner together in a Balinese restaurant. Milan, Ixchel, Euan, Jennifer, Helen, Cat ... Continue Reading
Kusakabe-san showed us the next day how to trim Japanese tea bowls. Every tea bowl has its own characteristic foot “kodai”. He starts out trimming with a bamboo stick to make it even and to clearly mark the beginning of the bottom part of the bowl. And of cour ... Continue Reading
I am on my way back to the US and am in the train from Kamakura to Narita Airport what will take about 2 1/2 hours. A perfect time to continue my writing until the battery runs out. The 2nd day started out with a demonstration of Euan Craig to make different kinds of ceramic ware ... Continue Reading
