Post Fire

Well, I was a bit over enthusiastic with the glaze thickness, but everything came out pretty well, all things considered. Here are some 'after' pics to put the previous post of pre-fire prep into context. First, the rice straw bottoms:


As you can see, many of the senbei are cemented to the cups. This is because of my being a little too liberal with the glaze. If I'd wiped the bottoms, or used more rice straw this wouldn't have been so bad. Still, since the bottoms are concave it's usually just the sides that are stuck and most of the senbei comes off pretty easily. The stubborn stuff comes off quickly with the green wheel. Here's a finished bottom, looking much better.


Next, the kai-kodai, or shell bottomed stuff:



Above, they are perched on the shells, and any drips tend to just fall to the senbei without messing up the foot too much. Below, here are some of the same cups with shells removed, but not yet finished. The shells came off pretty cleanly, and left nice red flashing on the feet.




Here's the detail of one of the feet, this actually is the same foot as the one pictured green here in a previous post.




One group of cups was glazed a bit differently in a way which allows the glaze to run more. Here's where the advantage of shells really comes in. The cup in the pic below was placed on rice straw. Firmly cemented to the senbei and a lot of grinding required. (Actually, no grinding required, as it is now fragments in my shard pile.)




Here's the same type of cup on shells. This cleaned up in a few seconds on the green wheel.





Last are the small plates laid on rice hulls with their corners supported with shells. Not a single plate stuck to a shelf. A rare occurence for me....

Firing Prep

Well, spent the last week glazing and finally loaded the kiln yesterday. I'd bisqued two pretty full loads, so I now have enough for about 3 glaze firings. I glazed it all hoping to do 2 or 3 firings back to back. Now that I spent 4 full days doing nothing but glazing, I'm not sure if it was a wise thing or not to try this...

Anyway, since Karatsu ware is as a rule one quarter to one third naked, and since I fire in a gas kiln for the time being, I try to think of ways to make the naked clay feet and bottoms more interesting.

One way is to fire on shells, that way you get the flashing from the salt in the shells. There is also the added benefit of keeping the pot elevated so that if the glaze runs too much, you don't end up with footrings cemented to the senbei (the flat fireclay pads) that need to be ground off. With the shells, often just a little grinding gets everything clean. One caveat: Get the remains of the shells off of the feet before they (the shells) absorb too much moisture because they will swell, and for some reason will often remove chunks of the clay body when they do this. When you take them from the kiln the shells are still hard, but if you wait a day or so in a humid climate, you can take the stuff stuck to the pot off with a pointy steel object (pry away from your fingers and palm). Don't forget to pack the shells with fireclay so that they don't collapse in firing, sending your pot tumbling into the 3 others next to it, making them best friends forever. This method also has the added benefit of allowing you to level the pot easily.




The other way to get nice bottoms is rice straw. I like this one more, but if you have runny glaze you run the risk of grinding hell. Sometimes its worth risk, the random red flashed stripes on the bottom of the pots are gorgeous.




One less interesting but much easier and quicker way to set pots and prevent plucking is to put them on a little bed of rice husks, but then you get just the inside of the foot with red flashing which looks a bit unnatural. To just prevent plucking, the quick way is to keep some liquid clothing starch on hand. Quick dip the foot in the starch then quick dip in a bed of husks. Just the wet part will pick up the husks (and hang on to them), and you can set the pot right on the shelf or senbei. You can do the same thing with just water, but by the time you get the pot to the shelf most of the husks have fallen off into your other pots and have to picked out, or you end up with little razor sharp spikes in your pot. I once tried to blow them lightly out, forgetting that breath is not all that focused and all those random air currents pick up every other husk within a 30 foot radius and makes them fly into all your already set pots regardless of whether or not they are already covered by shelves or not. Only did that once...




Here I've done it with some small flat footless dishes. For small slabs, the husks allow the slab to expand and contract without cracking. For heavy slabs, sand works better. I put shells under each corner just in case they want to lay down.

Kiln's firing now, hopefully I'll have some good pictures to post day after tomorrow...

Bonanza! II

Here's the clay in the bags followed by the white stuff in the jar ready to be thrashed.








After mixing with water, oops maybe it's not so white after all...

Bonanza!

On the way toa and from my classes on Friday mornings, I always drive by the same place, a hill cut away into terraces for houses that appear to have never been built, I suppose just another project put on ice until the economy recovers. I never actually got out and close to the place, because from the road it looks like orange sandstone and decomposed granite.

Finally out of curiosity yesterday I drove up the access got out and checked it out. Wow! It's pure clay, in bands from white to red, and lots of it. And you don't even have to dig, because huge chunks are eroding and falling out. Just pick up the chunks and put them in the bag. I always keep some bags and a shovel in my van for such occasions, so I brought home 2 bags of white, and one each of brown and red for testing.

Sorry for the bad quality of the pictures, they're from my digital camera. Close up pics coming soon...

Another nice morning

Had a nice walk with the dog this morning. The last few days it's been foggy in the mornings. When I got up in the middle of the cedar grove, the sun came beaming through the fog, really nice. You'll have to imagine the cool air, the birds singing, and the smell of the mist.

Ochakai

Yesterday was the Hagakure Kenkyukai tea gathering conducted by my Ocha (tea ceremony) teacher's mother (Ogura Sensei), who is also a tea teacher. My teacher, Kawakami Sensei, is shown at left in the picture (pink kimono), sitting on the stool waiting for the tea to be prepared. She'll then pick up the bowl and take it to a guest, and receive the bowl after the guest is finished drinking. Ogura sensei is shown on the right, in the rear, wearing a light green kimono.

This form of the tea ceremony is called 'ryurei', and is conducted at a table, sitting on a stool or in a chair. Much easier on the knees...



Here is my Ocha sempai, Kuroiwa san, preparing tea for guests. Here, he's finished putting in the tea and is adding water. He will then whisk it into a froth. The tea bowl was interesting, a pink Hagi bowl incised with many designs on the outside surface, and slightly oval. I was very surprised at the mizusashi. Just looking at it, is seems to be lacquerware, but when you pick up the lid you realize it is porcelain. It had this huge flaring rim, and the lid was actually only about 4 inches across, sitting down in the center. Not my taste as far as ceramics go, but quite impressive in itself. I didn't inquire what it was worth...




I was only able to stay for the first hour or so of the event. I had to get back home because we had a local festival happening and all the grade school kids (including mine) were participating. After that was finished we had a big yakiniku (barbeque) party for the Shorinji Kenpo group (my boys and I are members) and for the Shishimai (Chinese Lion Dance) group, which my next door neighbor runs.

And here's where the post finally has to do with pottery: One of the guys (Izumi san) who is a musician for the lion dance group turned out to be and old friend and drinking buddy of Okamoto Sakurei, the Karatsu potter who I've had a chance to visit a few times recently.The funny thing is, he had no idea how famous Okamota san is as a potter. He's one of the top Karatsu artists currently, and his ware sells for big bucks. When I told Izumi san that Okamoto san was one of my pottery 'heroes', he just gave me a funny 'what the hell for?' sort of look. I'm not surprised he didn't know of his fame, as Okamoto san seems to be quite down to earth and doesn't toot his own horn all that much. If time allows, I'd like to take a group of interested folks up the mountain to visit Okamoto san during our kiln building workshop next fall.
Anyway, the long and short of it is that Isumi san and I will be going out next Saturday to dig Jinenjo, which are these long thin tubers that grow up in the mountains. They are a big pain in the butt to dig up, but are really yummy. Some people are really good at finding and digging them up, and sell them. A good Jinenjo can go for $60 or $70 bucks.

Here's a page with some pictures of Okamoto san's work:

http://cid-e4ff9db1c9056748.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!E4FF9DB1C9056748!924.entry

Also:

Mini Workshop by Tsuruta Yoshihisa

Great news! Tsuruta San has agreed to give a one day demo and lecture during the kiln building workshop in fall 2010. See here:

http://karatsupots.com/workshop2010/workshop2010.html


For anyone not familiar with his work, Tsuruta San is a 3rd generation potter, and a veteran of over 30 years making Karatsu ware, and currently specializes in making implements for tea ceremony. He is also my mentor. I'm so pleased he's agreed to do this demo, his knowledge is considerable and he's always happy to share it. For anyone interested in Karatsu ware, tea ceremony ware, clay and glazes, or just making good pots in general, this is a great chance to see a master at work. Some of his work can be seen at the links below:

http://turuta.jp/
http://mizusashi.turuta.jp/
http://tyawan.turuta.jp/
http://hanaire.turuta.jp/
http://tyaire.turuta.jp/
http://utsuwa.turuta.jp/
http://nomi.turuta.jp/

Above are just the links to pictures of ware. Browse the site for other interesting things, even if you don't read Japanese. Some preview pics below.

Okugorai

Here is a short blurb on Okugorai chawan, the most famous of the Karatsu chawan, which were the Karatsu answer to the Korean O-Ido bowls (previously the name Okugorai alluded to the fact that scholars were not sure of the provenance (Karatsu or Korea)). Probably the biggest difference is that the Okugorai bowls were made for tea, because all of the other differences in appearance still follow the same aesthetic of beauty that the O-Ido bowls do.

The real debate begins when collectors, critics, and scholars get together and talk about which bowls fall into the Okugorai category, and which are just simply Kogaratsu (Old Karatsu). That's pretty much a quagmire, and not really significant, unless you're a collector of some kind, in which case you probably already know more than I do.

The points I want to stress today are the characteristics of the Okugorai bowls, these bowls exhibit just about every trait that is desirable in Karatsu ware, and much of what is sought after by makers and collectors alike can be seen in them. Okugorai bowls are generally larger in size, like the O-Ido bowls.




1. Me-ato: The spots left on the interior of the pot from the wadding used to separate pots when they are stacked in one another and fired.
2. Kannyu: Crackle in the glaze which absorbs minerals and tea tannins over time, and becomes accentuated.
3. Koshoku: Lit. 'old color'. The color changes in the glaze and clay that occur over time and use.
4. Tsuchimi/Tsuchiaji: The unglazed area of the pot, which shows the bare clay. Tsuchiaji is the 'flavor of the clay', some clays have good tsuchiaji, others have none (are uninteresting).
5. Kairagi: Lit. 'plum tree bark'. The crawling in the glaze which occurs over the trimmed parts of the bowl. Resembles the bark of a plum tree.
6.Chirimenjiwa: Lit. 'crepe wrinkling'. Crinkling and tearing of the clay where it has been trimmed. Resembles the wrinkling of crepe cloth.
7. Yu-kire: Places on the surface where the glaze has dropped off or pulled back to reveal a bare spot.
8. Yubi ato: Fingerprints or smudges where the potters fingers slid as he placed the pot on the ware board and released it and pulled his/her hand away.
9. Ishihaze: Eruptions in the surface of the clay caused when the clay shrinks around a silica or feldspar stone, making it appear as if the stone is erupting from the surface.

Workshop Web Flier up

The web flier for the October 2010 kiln building workshop is now up.


http://karatsupots.com/workshop2010/workshop2010.html


Please check it out!

Foot Detail

Here are some detail pictures of the trimmed clay.

Fun with some new clay

Tried out some new clay yesterday. It's one of the 'waxy' sandstones that I dug a couple months ago, the one with the mystery green inclusions. Actually, the pure sandstone turned out to be unwedgeable, so I mixed it with some Karatsu white clay, about half and half. It turned out to be reasonably throwable, with some unexpected chunks and tears.
I trimmed the guinomi this morning and got some nice surfaces. Looking forward to see how this clay reacts to the glazes and the fire.

A beautiful morning

Took the dog out this morning for a walk. It rained all day yesterday and still cloudy and misting a bit today, may be in for more rain this evening. Anyway, cool and subdued, the low clouds hang in the valleys and the treetops like a soft blanket. When it's early and like this, it's almost like the outside world is muffled, and the immediate is drawn into tighter focus. It has the wonderful rain smell and the flowers stand out in the lush green. The dew brings all of the spider webs into view, really shining in the patches of sun that come through. All in all, a great morning to make good pots.
My neighbor's old home. The land is all that remains now, and from the size of this little island of land surrounded by rice fields, I don't see how a house could have fit there. I've been meaning to ask them about this. To give perspective, the hydrangea in the right of the picture is about 5-6 feet high. The old pots have been sitting there in the same place since I moved here 5 years ago, and I imagine they'll be sitting there much longer. People use these pots for various things, from grain storage to oil and drink storage, to pickling, to human waste containment (which was later used on the fields for fertilizer).


I love this persimmon tree. Looks like a bonsai (with fruit and leaves actually to scale) to me. The persimmons are ripening now and the leaves are starting to fall. My neighbor has a very tall persimmon and uses the old method of getting them down. He cuts a piece of long bamboo(24" plus) and splits the small end so it's open a 1/4 inch or so. He can then stick it up under the stem of the fruit pinching it in the split end. Give it a twist and the fruit comes free, but doesn't drop and smash because the stem is scissored between the split ends of the bamboo. Pretty clever.
A nice little dew covered flower. These were popping up everywhere at the edge of a field that used to have a house. I suppose whoever lived there before planted bulbs, and they've been coming up ever since, even though the people are long gone.


I've posted a couple more pictures of the accomodations I've negotiated for the kiln building workshop next October. These are posted at:

http://karatsupots-workshop.blogspot.com/

Clay Talk

Did some clay collecting over the past few weeks and have started processing it into usable stuff. It's all pretty much sandstone. I don't know the technical terms, but I group the sandstone around here from 'dry' to 'waxy'. Meaning when you cut into it with a pick you'll get a waxy shine on the cut surface, or just flat dry and powdery. With the waxy stuff, you can usually get some good sandy clay from it. The dry stuff is good on it's own as an additive for augmenting your other clays, especially if they don't mature and leak, the added sandstone seals them right up, without fluxing them too much (if you stick with the whiter sandstones)

The pictures below are of some of the waxy type sandstone, after it's been dumped in a jar with water and mixed with a power drill mixer. It melted readily into it's components, no mashing or pounding was necessary prior to mixing. The first picture shows the finest particles, which I scoop out after agitating and allowing to settle. This is the finest clay with the least amount of iron. I'm not too picky here, so I get a bit of the finest sand at the same time. This makes the clay very nice when trimmed soft, and if I just took the finest particles I'd waste too much of what I dug up.




Next is the picture of what I get after sifting through 20 mesh. This will be useful in this clay body as an additive of some larger particles. Also it can be nice adding to other clay bodies, especially some store bought stuff that may not be so interesting, just remember to test first before you spend a bunch of time on a large batch.



The last bit is what didn't go through 20 mesh, fairly uniform granules for the most part, with some larger pieces of sandstone left over. This particular stone has some interesting green granules that I've never seen before. It seems hard but crumbles reluctantly if you press firmly with your fingernail. This size is good to hang on to, just in case. The last picture is of some of the dry type sandstone after I've stamped it in my man powered stamper mill. This is a fairly uniform mix now, and can be added to finer clays to give them tooth and help them mature.




Just in case you're wondering, I do find clay that is actually clay and use it too. Right above the place where I dug the sandstone from the pics above, there was a 5"thick seam of fairly white (light yellow?) fine clay. This is named Stephen's Clay, after my friend Stephen who discovered it. Although fine, it's not a nice plastic clay, but rather the consistency of wheat flour, if you wet it thoroughly. Should make some really nice pots though!

Tsuchiaji

In the Japanese pottery world, the word 'tsuchiaji', lit. 'flavor of the clay' is a much used term. In the case of Karatsu, even more so, though I wouldn't be surprised if Japan's long, rich history of unglazed ceramics is the main reason this term is so important.

Possibly the most distinctive characteristic of Karatsu ware is the clay, and one thing you might notice when looking at the ware is the lack of glaze on the foot. It's probably safe to say that most potters (in the world) pick up pots and examine the foot first when viewing a pot, because it says a lot about the potter who made it. Most of the Karatsu potters and collectors I know do this, not just to view the carving job on the foot, but also to see the clay that was used.

The clays found in Saga prefecture, including the Kishidake area close to Karatsu, are usually quite large particle, non-plastic clays which contain a lot of sands. Lots of sandstone and coal throughout the area as well. Many potters (modern and historically) use sandstone in their clay body to seal the body, since many of the clays will not mature even at higher temperatures. Not only are many of the clays quite sandy, but in many cases the clay used was actually sandstone, not clay. One contemporary potter uses pounded sandstone for his clay body, and close examination of some old pots has shown that they too might be made of sandstone. One group of researchers travelled to Korea and found a place where similar practices had been utilized for hundreds of years (the name of the place escapes me now). These potters started with sandstone and pounded it in stamp mills. They then seived it into various particle sizes and created their clay body from that. Left over particle sized were used for other purposes such as glaze ingredients, making kiln furniture, etc... so that there was no waste, all of the sandstone was used.

Anyway, the most prized characteristic of many Karatsu clays is effect of 'chirimenjiwa' or crepe-like crinkling that occurs when the clay is trimmed soft. This effect is most obvious in the 3rd photo below, top left, in the 3 footrings made of a white, sandy Kishidake clay, from the Hobashira kiln.

In all of the photos below, the pots shown are quite old (400 years give or take). All of the clays have developed a patina over the years and are likely much darker than when they were first fired.

Amamori

Here are 4 views of my current favorite tea cup. I bought it about 5 months ago from Maruta Munehiko. It's been fired in his anagama, probably at +-1200C, and has a white slip over a dark clay, covered overall in a thin coat of clear, which shows some fairly small crackle.

Originally this cup was a fairly uniform white with iron spotting and pinholing. Shades of the darker clay could be seen through the slip, but browns and yellows were not present. Below are some pictures of the cup as it is now. On the interior, one can see the 'amamori' effect (see previous post) to a great degree. Also, the crackle is greatly accentuated, it was not really visible to the naked eye before I started using the cup.

On the interior and exterior, various shades of browns and yellows, which were not present before, have started to suffuse the surface.

I really have started enjoying this cup much more, the more I use it. I'm really looking forword to what it will look like in the future.

Shinsuisei

This is the first of a group of posts I'd like to make about the appreciation of Karatsu ceramics. There are some characteristics of Karatsu ware that are unique to them, primarily due to the local clays, but also due to other materials as well as techniques, and firing.

The first of these characteristics is 'Shinsuisei', roughly translated as 'affinity for water'. There are two sides to the meaning of this word. First is the actual physical changes that occur. Karatsu ware, as well as some other Japanese wares, improves with age. For example, a new E-Karatsu (brush decorated) or Muji Karatsu (undecorated) teabowl is a relatively understated piece of pottery to say the least. It is only through years of use that this pot will acquire the patina and lanscape that will make it a truly remarkable piece. It is safe to say that all the most beautiful and interesting Karatsu ware is the result of the process not only of the potter initially creating the pot, but also the far longer process of the pot's owner using it in daily life. So while the potter creates the vessel itself, the user is equally important in the process of creation, because in a sense, the vessel is continually growing to become a complex thing of simple beauty (if that makes sense).

From the technical side, shinsuisei is the result of clay, glaze and/or slip, and firing. Karatsu clay is very rough, large particle clay for the most part (there are exceptions), and even fired to maturity, often has a high absorbtion. Water, and subsequently the minerals in the water and tannins from the tea will penetrate the bowl through imperfections in the glaze such as crackle, pinholes or stone eruptions. Cracks in old bowls accelerate the process. Also the unglazed feet of Karatsu ware contribute to water penetrating the pot.

The second side of shinsuisei refers to the aesthetic of the ware, ware that is perfectly at home and matched to it's intended use, which in this case is drinking. Karatsu is very famous among tea implements, and Karatsu guinomi are prized as sake drinking vessels. In both cases, the vessels complement and improve the drinking experience. The kanji for sake (酒)　has the same reading as the kanji for water (水). Some aficionados like to point this out when the term 'shinsuisei' is mentioned, because it could be taken to mean 'affinity for sake', as well as 'affinity for water'.

In both photos below, you can see where the water has penetrated the vessel and given it a unique character that did not exist when the pot was new. Although a pot for comparison is not pictured, the bare clay surfaces are quite a bit darker than they were when these particular pots came out of the kiln. The chipped surfaces of the top hanzutsu teabowl give a hint as to the original color of the clay. Both bowls are quite changed overall, with the crackle and pinholing accentuate by years of use. The cracks in the hanzutsu teabowl, rather than detracting from the beauty, as they would with a 'clean' porcelain piece, accentuate the 'landscape' and warmth of the bowl. This effect is called amamori '雨漏り', meaning 'rain leaking in'.

New garden shed almost finished

This is the new garden shed. 3x2.5x2.5 meters, lots of vertical space for tall stuff, perhaps hang a bicycle or two. Just finished the doors yesterday, lucked out in that they fit pretty well from the first try, just had to plane the top of the right door a bit because it was rubbing the frame. What's left is the covering of the triangular space with acrylic panels to allow light in.

"How does this relate to Karatsu pots?" you may be asking yourself. Well, all of the garden tools, soil, bicycles, wood, and non clay related stuff that are taking up space in my studio will be moved to the shed, making way for a much needed major re-arranging of pottery space. Yes!

Clay Drying Platform

I finally got off my butt and built a clay drying platform for my recycled slurry and stuff that I bring back from the mountain. It's made of standard cinderblocks and lined with some canvas. The canvas helps to keep everything fairly even, no dry edges and wet center. Pictured is when I had it with one side cloth, one side without, to see which worked better. The cloth side was the winner, hence the canvas.

Since these pics were taken, I've reconstituted about 100kg of clay I got from Nishioka Koju's supply. It's a beautiful clay that should make some wonderful pots. If you've ever seen any of Koju san's work, you have an idea of the type of clay. It's a real treasure that I'll probably never have again.

Mingei Show Display 2

Here are some of the other displays from the show:


First shown is Reid Ozaki, he put together a very nice display with plants from his garden and yard.














Next two are Matt Allison, I wish I had Matt's technical skill...


















Here is Sequoia Miller's display, very nice work. Reminds me of Michael Hagedorn's work. Michael stopped making pots some time ago in favor of becoming a Bonsai artist.
Like Matt, Sequoia's work shows a great deal of precision and mastery of his materials.


















Here is Ken Pincus' display. I had other pics but for some reason they turned out blurry. Lots of yummy biidoro ash drips in Ken's display. Ken and I's lives are similar on so many fronts, it is almost distrubing ;)














This is Steve Sauer's display. Steve obviously doesn't have problems with back pain. He had the largest pieces in the show overall. I really liked his large platters, hikidashi work, and flower arranging vessels resembling boulders and mountains.



















Hank Murrow is next with his lovely American shinos. Hank is the reason I was in the show this year, he was kind enough to pass along my request for an application, and introduced me to the people running the show. The afternoon of the show, Hank, Ken, John Fairman (the gallery owner) and I shared a few bowls of tea prior to the festivities. As we passed the bowls around oohing and aahing (about the tea and the bowls, Hank brought out a beautiful shino for the occasion), John made the hilarious observation that had this been 30 years ago, we probably would have been passing around a joint, and hadn't times changed?

Mingei Show Display

Here are some pics of my display at the Mingei show. All the potters picked a display spot roughly this size and used the furniture and other objects at the gallery to create a display. Really fun!

You can probably tell from the display, but I really liked the old wagon wheels. The shino teabowl shown near the bottom sold on the opening night, which was a nice surprise.