Last week I was in Holland. It was wonderful to be with my family especially after such a long time. On Friday December the 9th I went to the Opening reception of the Japanese Exhibition of 15 Mashiko potters at the Tiendschuur Museum in the city Tegelen. It was organized to hel ... Continue Reading
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 pott ... Continue Reading
Yesterday, Adriaan and I went to Mashiko with Steve Tootell (Head of the Creative and Performance Department from the International School of Sacred Heart), who was driving up with 2 students to make a movie about the aftermath of the earthquake in Mashiko. Koichiro Isaka-san fro ... Continue Reading
I had the fortune to go back to Fujiwara-san. During the workshop I had started making a sign for my gallery from a slab of clay. I wasn’t able to finish then, so now that my exhibition is finished, I returned to Mashiko. It was wonderful again to be there and see all the a ... Continue Reading
For 3 days I participated in The 10th World Art Educators’ Workshop featuring IKUZO FUJIWARA and coordinated by Steve Tootell, ceramic art and performance art director from the International School of The Sacred Heart in Tokyo and facilitated by Euan Craig, a Mashiko woodf ... Continue Reading
Yesterday, we went to an exposition from Yamato Tomoko, a friend of mine who lives in Mashiko. Now, she had a show in Tokyo in the Brocken Gallery, so we were able to go. It is a very modern gallery from concrete, nice and clean in a normal neighborhood with all houses. Tomoko-s ... 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
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
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
