DigiDestined . . . ?

So this happened: 

I am ever unsure about the need for a digital presence, and am especially tentative about self promotion, but it seems almost inescapable these days. I find myself in the midst of an effort to better upkeep my digital potter's portfolio. The FaceBook page will hopefully be a link between my instagram (name: bearsartorius), the longer ruminations on my making process at this blog, an etsy page (currently in construction), and also serve as a road map to my own pottery curiosities and inspirations. I think one of the things I've enjoyed most about my four year exploration into the pottery world is the broadening sense of community I have been able to find. Granted, most of the work and studios I'm finding and following are professionals on a far more educated plain than I am, but it gives me something to aspire to. My hope has always been that my posts about pottery will get others excited to give it a whirl and see where their hands take them. 

If you a missing out on the reference in the tittle just do yourself a favor and pop on over to view a bit of my childhood. 

I have about half a kiln loaded with work that'll get fired today. I have some new glaze combinations in this firing that make me a little nervous, but I'm hoping that they turn out just like I'm imagining they could. That's the best part though isn't it. Not really knowing exactly how it'll come out in the end. I love that to a degree I relinquish control of my work in the final stages and let heat do all the work for me.  

Get out there and create something! 

Recalibrate

After loading a small test batch of work into the newly repaired kiln I punched in the firing cycle and waited to see how the freshly refinished Kiln Gods would treat me.

The outcome is a mixed bag of over exposed and passable results. The kiln's programed cycles all were wiped durring the repair, and I must not have quite gotten the down fire temperatures right for this firing. Some adjustments are in order, but we'll get it sorted.

I'm particularly happy with the sculptural form I'd been working on for some time. It's one of the biggest peices I've ever done.



These little ochoko were really fun. At the end of the day, I'm jus texstatic to be back in buisness. The kiln is finally filled with the tiles from the workshop I ran back in October. As the weather turns my mind shifts to how to keep my hands warm in the studio, and what forms I most want to work on for the comming months. In January over half the school goes on class trips for about 3 weeks, and I will have more than ample time to get my hands really muddy.

If you just can't get enough of pottery and people talking about pottery, and you'd really like to see some fantastic surface treatments check out fetishghost (a fellow blogger user and great potter). Until next time keep creating! 

Toys, Important dates, and lots of Plates

 It's been busy BUSY weeks since I last posted here. The summer sun seems to have come and finally burned off the residual moisture of last weeks tail end to the rainy season. As seems par for the course the rainy season saw my dear mellon and cucumber plants consumed by white powdery mold, but my cherry tomatoes seem to be doing ok and my greens carry on as though there were nothing wrong in the least.  I've grown esspecially fond of my fish pot with two big gold fish, and a medly of water plants to keep it well oxygenated. They greet me every time I go out onto my balcony.

All too soon I'll be venturing home to visit the family in West Virginia for the first time in two years at the end of this month. I'm excited beyond beleif to see them. So, with packing added to the already impressive list of things to do I have been releived that I still managed to make time to create my pots. I've been testing out some new (absolutely astonishingly great) tools. We loaded two kilns full of my work and some student works and fired them up. The first firing came out very well for the most part, but unfortnately the second firing seems ot have unintentionaly gone too hot. This caused the glazes to become more muted than I was going for. All of this push for work is because I have some wonderful news! In early-mid September I'll be having my first solo exhibition. More details to come, along with fun promotional goodness, but I just wanted to relay the good news with this weeks up date. KIeep creating!

Great new toys from Mudtools. Thanks Mom and Dad these work wonderfuly.
I am esspecially fond of the rubber ribs and the new clay cutter.



I've really been focusing a lot on cup and saucer designs.
These were from the most recent long cool down firing.

I'm still trying to dial in the right mix of glazes and temperature change to result in the most
atmosphiric looking results. I don't quite have it yet, but I'm always after those
Bizen and Shigaraki colors. I am quite happy with these though.

Bisque and News

Today's weather really threw me for a loop. Cool lovely morning, hot mid day, and then humid but cool night. I have some large tiles that have been drying for days in the studio and the humidity is keeping them quite damp still depsite my best efforts. I would really like them to dry so that I can glaze them and try to slip them (yes unbisqued, my god right?!) into Friday's firing. Last week saw a bisque fire come and go smoothly and without any casualties. I've spent the week glazing like a mad man attempting to get everything ready in time because there's big news on the horizon (but for now it must remain a secret)!

 All tantalizing secrets aside I find that glazing is still a part of my creative process that is most in need of refining. I don't fully understand the techniques needed to smoothly blend two glazes, or even to get the same effect reliably every time. It is truley a new and fantastic experience almost every time I open the kiln. Sometimes my glazes behave exactly as I have hoped and expected them to, sometimes I'm surprised in the best of ways, and sometimes I'm greated by pots that look as though they were glazed with as much attention to detail as sand blowing in the wind. I've been quite active in the studio this week beyond just my glazing. Every day I have been working to teach myself how to reliably throw (though I should, perhaps, just say center) larger amounts of clay. I find it really challenging to maintain that perfect centered position on the wheel and my work (with one exception) has turned out good enough for the reclaim bucket every day this week. It leaves my wrists and fingers soar, but in reality I find that soarness refreshing!

I know you've seen these guys already, but I just fin this image far more pleasing than the other
and simply had to share it. 

My favorite mug from last weeks firing. 

Go create something TODAY! 

Bad News Break Down

    As an English teacher in Japan's public school system you know you come the end of March with the opening of cherry blossoms also comes the potential for your work world to dramatically change. Voices from mysterious Prefectural offices send out names on charts that, seemingly, uncaringly uproot teachers from their current schools and forcibly scatter them to all the far flung corners of the prefecture. For my past two years the teacher change has left my school largely unaffected.

    I entered to pottery studio last Thursday to desks covered in cardboard boxes and a very overwhelmed best friend. Tabe Sensei (my school's incredible craft teacher, and the reason I am able to use the pottery studio at my school, and most importantly my best friend at work) has been summoned away by the voices on high. She has 3 days to completely clean the studio and all of its Tabe art, decorations, and teaching aids. It's a daunting task. Over her years here many students have gifted her their art projects. These gifts adorn every inch of the studio. In slight shock at the news that Thursday and Friday will be my last days of seeing her, and my studio (at least as I have known it), all I can muster is, "I'll help?"
    In relative silence we collect the relics of her years teaching here. She chooses a few that mean the most to her (they'll follow her to her next school), but there are far more than could ever make the trip to her currently unknown next school. So, with pliers, hammers, and other instruments of disaster we deconstruct her collection of art in to suitably sorted piles of recyclabe parts. We save the pottery room for last. There we gather all our students work that is left over. . .

take it out behind the kiln shed,

Tabe the destroyer!

This is only a third of the student's work we smashed.

the aftermath

     and take out our frustration in a duel hammer weilding frenzy. After the dust settles and we've spread the shattered bits evenly about laughter takes us. Inside I'm still smashing things with hammers. We go back and talk about our years together with kids and in the studio. We cram all our work into the electric kiln for one last group bisque fire, and watch as a construction crew crain lifts the old broken down gas kiln away into nothingness (now even the kiln room feels empty). She says she'll come to school and visit me when she can, and reminds me that we live in the same town. I assure her that I'll take her up on her invitation of comming to her house any time to say hello.

     All in all, last weeks ceramics news was somewhat crippling. It is a total system reset. It means getting to know a new craft teacher, probably not teaching any ceramics courses this year, and at least for the moment a severly less agressive studio presence. Tabe sensei apearantly went to university with the genltman who will be taking her spot at school. She says he's brilliant, and claims that she has explained to him that I use the studio and can help the students as well. These are all promissing details, but none the less change (big or small) is difficult, and my school in total lost about 13 incredible teachers. Two of those 13 are English teachers I love working with, and one is my best Japanese friend.
    For now, I have to go and continue to help clean the studio, and say farewells. More will come as I know what the ceramics situation looks like from here. I'll post when I can with updates.
Everything changes, the important thing is how you handle that change. Tabe sensei and I will see eachother again, and even if I am only granted once a week after school studio time it will still be sticking my hands in mud. . . . gratitude for my two plus years of working with her and thoughts of how much she ( and the time she allowed me to have in the studio) helped me to find my love of ceramics throughout my years here are the thoughts I'm trying really hard to focus on.

more soon.

Keep creating friends!

Surprise Firing and garden first (only photos!)

I'm supremely happy with the glazes on these pieces. 

Have a great weekend Ya'll! 

At Last, at LAST!

spouted bowls 

salad bowl 

inside with copper melt trailing 

This last firing did some really crazy stuff friends and muddy handed pottery lovers. The longer firing cycle I have been using, the one the focuses on an extended down fire after the peak temperature has been reached, did some really unexpected things to some of my glazes this time. When I first went to open the kiln last week I was expecting to see a lot of reds and patina bronze blues. Instead I was greeted by deep milky whites with trails of turquoise, purple and silver amidst the off earthy yellow of the clay body I have been using. At first I was mortified. The results were far from what I wanted. The active coloring agent in my new glazes is some type of copper oxide and The results from my longer and higher heat exposure look very similar to my playings with melting copper wire to my sculptures in the kiln. 

Despite my initial disappointment in my work, no father can stay away from his children for too long, and after some extended time studying I am actually very happy with the new colors I have managed to create. After all, isn't have the fun of ceramics the element of mystery the kiss of flames and heat bring to the table. That kid on Christmas morning feeling when you go to open up the kiln for the first time. It's the best! 

More new photos will follow. I've been focusing on vase forms in the studio this week! I hope to upload some shots of them on Friday. Thanks for reading! 

Little Glaze and Back to Bisque

November is the cruelest month! It brings the promises of winter travels taking shape, the sorrows of turkey-less Thanksgivings, new friends, ever new experiences, and more classes, after school extra lessons, and night time classes that an angry bigfoot can shake a mulberry stick at. More specifically, November Mondays and Tuesdays are hell on this busy Bear's earth. None the less, my ceramics still manages to squeeze its way into these busy days. A few nice bowls and two big sculpture pieces came out of the kiln on Monday. The sculpture work will make it's way to these pages in the days that follow. I have more bowls about to go into the next glaze fire, and even loaded up the kiln again tonight for probably the last bisque fire of this year. More to come around on Thursday, I hope. Have a great week ya'll

Fired / tired

Well today was just a dreary Monday like we've not had for some time. The sun never quite woke from its slumber today, and the promise of rain hung heavy about Susaki all day. The days themselves are getting shorter and shorting, and it is now no longer light at 5:30 when I return home from work. BUT! The light of a newly repaired kiln and successful bisque fire is brightening my days (along with all enumerable joys that fill all the non ceramic centered portions of life). The bisque was a success and the students work that got fired all survived ta boot! We've stated the glazing cycle and should be completing it within a week or so. I recently was informed that the gallery on the eastern side of Kochi where some of my work is on display has been selling several of my pots! So that was a pleasant surprise to overhear. Enjoy the photos and we'll see you as soon as I have more new work to post. Here's some pictures of some of the various finished works ready for glazing and some of the new work that has just reached the bone dry stage and will go in with the next bisque fire.

2/2 Make!

Well now that you know of two weeks ago's happenings, it's time for a recap of last week. So last week was midterm at Susaki High School. This meant that my time was largely dedicated to studio time. However, with the kiln on the fritz I didn't feel hugely motivated to just create, create, create. I spent a huge chunk of my week cycling through the happy step bye step of scoop from reclaim bucket, dry on plaster bricks, wait, wedge, bag, and repeat. So help me, that bucket is empty! Although, today's pottery class began the battle anew with their bowls of slip.

Tuesday was a really productive day of wheel work. I worked specifically towards honing in on a bowl shape I am rather fond of after warming up with some yunomi and smaller coffee bowls. It was one of those rare days where centering came easily, and the clay and my hands just seemed to be on the same wavelength.

Also in the good news bracket since my post this morning I have just been informed in a friendly little message that the kiln was fixed today, and the pots are firing as I type these happy words. I trimmed the pots pictured above after school, and prepped the last of the reclaim clay for the students use throughout the week. We'll be onto a glazing cycle by the end of this week, and that means the best part is only a few weeks away! Nothing's better than opening up a fresh glaze firing, and, preferably, cradling the still slightly warm pots in your hands for the first time as finished works. I love it! Here's to hoping we're back to our regularly planned life hence forth eh! Come back on Thursday for more updates. Have a great week!

The System is Down

O'hisashiburi friends and mudd enthusiasts. The nights are beginning to develop that real Autum chill, and the persimons have come into season (they are my favorite of Japanese seasonal fruits so every Fall I gobble as many as I can, while I can). I have been busy, as always, BUT the difference being my time management / or multi tasking skills seem to have lessoned since this time last year. Finding time to actually write these lovely posts, or remembering to bring my camera to school, has been . . . spotty at best. Thustly this is the first of my attempts at 2 posts in 1 day. WHAT! you may say? You read it right folks. Consider it my way of saying I'm sorry for my deplorable postings of the past weeks. There's much to cover but we'll start where I left off. Two Fridays ago I loaded up the kiln with two shelves of work, and quite a bit of student's work as well. Everyone's been excited to see how their work will bisque, but t'was not meant to be. Late Saturday night I got a message from Tabe Sensei saying that she went to check on the firing and found the kiln flashing a message that it could not fire because the cooling system was non functional. So, we're on hold here at the home front. The estimated time for the repair is about 2 weeks. Until then I'll have to keep my hands busy with cleaning the messy studio and managing the ever swelling mound of reclaim clay (seriously that bucket never empties!).

If you are a frequent checker of this blog I have a request for you! So, I majored in English in College, and love to read. Being carried away or challenged by a good book is one fo the greatest ways to relax. Unfortunately, I've not found inspiration in a book in about 2 months. So, dear readers, leave a friendly comment suggesting a book that's really entangled you in its pages recently. Sure I could look at best sellers, or any of the other interweb resources vailable to me to find books, but I find this path a tad more interesting. Suggest away, and I'll be doing better hence forth at managing my multided of tasks and loves. See you on Thursday!

Spots, dots, and new color bliss.

This one's bound for California to improve a dear friend's sake consumptions. 

The kiln gods were good to me this firing! Two sake sets and some twin cups many more photos to unveil slowly. This week is really full on with finals and test writing so Thursday may not happen. . . we can only see what the week actually puts before me. Enjoy the photos and your weeks!

Mapping unknown paths

New work ready to be loaded and fired this weekend.  

Monday came and went in a flurry of meetings for orientations, planing of vacations, and extra review sessions with my best students for finals. Along with surprising business of this week (and the lack of my promised Monday postings)  I managed to squeeze about 7 pots in with last weekend's firing of student work. Since the fantastic results from my first experiment in firing cycles the school has also been using the longer down fire process. However, this firing didn't produce quite the same results.

The colors are still pleasantly deeper, but the yellow ran and pooled in very different ways that I can't say I'm particularly crazy about. The wine goblets were fun to make, and have close to the feel I was going for, but they lack the controlled blending and transitions from one glaze to the next that I was really going for. Even though these forms turned out as a fun trial of the new firing cycle the coffee bowls I made turned out quite nice and got more of the layering and blending I was after.

I could ramble on out this week's muddy dreams of futures (much like last weeks post), wow you with hypotheticals that keep me tossing at night (and unfocused in the office), or I could just say that I'm really excited for the opening of the kiln on Monday. Live for the present right! I'm also excited for an August trip to Tokyo because there will be a fantastic looking exhibit focusing on the great one, Bernard Leach. You can bet your trimming tools I'll be going to that.

Have a great weekend!

Form for function?

Walked into the studio today to find several of these posters.
 Lovely little thank you's from the students for the tools and glazes I donated. 

Happy Monday everyone. Loaded up the kiln today with all the bone dry work I have. Lots of coffee mugs, wine goblets, some sake flasks, a few ochoko, and two tea pots. 

Just wanted to take a moment to highlight a laughable little miscalculation in my first take on a tea pot here. I pulled the body of the pot to be a taller form, always with the intention of placing the spout lower on the body bell flare of the pot. I thought it would make some really nice lines, and I am happy with the overall (although still a bit clunky to my eyes) shape of it. BUT, after drying and further examination I've come to the realization that due of the placement of the spout this teapot can never be filled to capacity. WWWWWHHOOOPSS! Having the spout so love means that water is just going to go right out of it as one attempts to fill it. So. . . lesson learned. Perhaps once it is fired I will be proven wrong, but I find that doubtful. The second tea pot is much more functional and successful.

Here's hoping all goes well with the firing. See you all on Thursday.

Hata Fest NEW WORK Fun Explosions!

We're only two days away from HATA FEST (the link is in all Japanese, but I like to imagine there are half a handful of Japanese readers out there in the datosphere). The first day, Saturday, will be performances from fantastic musicians (and other fun items of interests), and Sunday will be the day that yours truly is showing his collection to any and all would be feedbackers and conversationalists (who all hopefully become overcome by the urge to give these poor lonely pots a new homes). 

In even more blatant terms PLEASE COME SAY HI TO ME AND MANY OTHER ALT's and lovely people this weekend! 

RIGHT! 

Now, finally the long promised results from last weeks new firing. Behold! 

Opening this kiln load up was like discovering Santa had moved his workshop into my basement overnight. So, what did I do differently and why did I choose to do it? Well the short answer is that I sped up the rise in temperature of my firing cycle and added an extremely exaggerated cooling "down firing" to the end of it.  

WHY? 

The idea came from reading this article, by Steve Hill, in February's issue of Ceramics Monthly. The article focused on Steve's journey from higher temperature gas firings to his current work with electric kilns. In the article he speaks extensively on how to achieve the "magical, unpredictable surface effects that result from atmospheric firing techniques," without having an atmospheric environment to fire in. In basic terms, how to make electric oxidation firing look more like the highly sought after effects of other firing method such as: soda firing, wood firing, pit firing, the previously mentioned gas firing, raku firing, and countless others. The article's main thrust can be summed up by a quote from Pete Pinnell:

“In reduction firing, glazes can stratify into layers during the course of the firing. Longer firings and slower cooling cycles, along with the effects of reduction, can result in the creation of complex structures that can result in a variety of beautiful visual effects. Even seemingly opaque glazes can have enough translucency for one layer to subtly affect the next, creating variation and softness in surface color. In oxidation, shorter firing cycles, faster cooling, and an oxidizing atmosphere can result in less layering, simpler structures and less interesting visual qualities.”

Steve goes on to explain his firing process and years of trying new cycles (which I found absolutely wonderful to read, but I'll spare you the nerdy details). What is all boils down to is that by layering cone 6 glazes and exposing them to higher temperatures for a longer period of time the glazes are given more time to intermingle. This results in more blended colors, matted-finishes, and atmospheric results. No more hard lines between layered colors. This is a whole new variable in my ceramics process, and the results make me want to try new firing cycles. How long is too long? What is the optimum exposure to high heat to blend the colors, and not loose their vividness? Do all glazes react the same to the longer heat exposure (this firing seems to have severely darkened my blues and turned my green glazes into more of a dark translucent green)? 

My curiosity is endless. SO MANY QUESTIONS! But, there's plenty of time to seek those answers. For now, I'd say I've rambled on quite long enough about things I only have the most basic of understandings of. Hope you like the new work as much as I do, and hope to see you out in force at Hata Fest. 

See you next time friends. 

Postponed

Today's update on the new kiln load has been postponed due to the fact that it is still cooling. . . . . .
Here's a few pictures of all my glaze tests though. That'll hold you over! RIGHT?!  Sorry folks, I was frustrated too. Never have I felt more tempted to open a giant oven burning at just over 400 C (like 700ish F) and thrust my face in just for a peek at new pots. Patience is a virtue!