Wood-firing is a choice today with all the other possibilities of electric, gas, oil kilns etc. Wood-firing takes a lot of labor for nights and days. People who get into this will do this for the rest of their lives, because the pieces have an extraordinary beauty.Wood firing is ... Continue Reading
Work I threw on the wheel: throwing, trimming and transforming. Now, it is being bisque fired in an electric kiln and some pieces tomorrow in an oil kiln. The gray pieces are the same clay: Gotomaki with very fine charnotte or grog and for the firings for Euan’s. Kusakabe- ... Continue Reading
This is Furuki-san and his wife, Hiroko-san from the International Tougei Club in Mashiko. Some assistants, who help you and everybody with anything all day long: Kenji-san and Unno-san and Kim-san. x Continue Reading
I am back again in Mashiko preparing for the Fantastic Fire workshop. Rob Muylaert, also a Dutch participant, visited me in Kamakura and together we came earlier to make pots for the firings. This is Rob and Swanica at the wheel at the International Tougei Club from Furuki-san ( ... Continue Reading
I just received some pictures from Steve Tootell of the finished kilns. Look at the steel frame work around the kilns and chimneys for support during the heat expansion of a firing. Euan’s kiln. Kusakabe-san’s kiln. Continue Reading
This will be my last post about the building of the wood fire kilns: Euan Craig’s Anagama and Masakazu Kusakabe-san’s Dancing Smokeless Wood kiln. I will return home to Kamakura and then to the Netherlands. and return in October for Steve Tootell’s “Fantas ... Continue Reading
The building of the kilns progresses incredibly fast. The walls are finished and the arch will rest on it. Here the inner layer of insulating fire brick is being laid. The arch is being build. In a very precise manner with different sizes. Still only one row left and working ... Continue Reading
They worked hard today and even started to build the arch of Kusakabe-san’s kiln. In the afternoon, the damper was in the chimney and the walls were already well above the grates of the fire box. They had put a tarp over it in the evening and I couldn’t see the kiln ... Continue Reading
Secondly, I feel lucky to be here, because Kusakabe-san and Euan Craig are building their kilns at the moment at Furuki-san’s clay center. I will fire those kilns with Steve Tootell’s workshop in the end of October. So, they have the Mashiko Building Kiln workshop at ... Continue Reading
Euan Craig gave a workshop in Mashiko at the Tao International Tougei Center of Furuki-san on Feb 22-24 for the student and parent potters of the International School of the Sacred Heart from Tokyo. This was organized by the head of the art department Steve Tootell. http://www.d1 ... Continue Reading
