I have finished loading the first part of the second room. Very slow this time. There are 8 levels of shelves, 3 shelves per level, about 10 pieces on each shelf so 8*3*10 = 240 pieces for this stack.
Here is how far I have gotten in loading the next firing. I have 2 feldspar glazes. The one marked ‘new feld’ is one I mixed up from my usual recipe. The one marked ‘old feld’ is the same recipe but I mixed it up about 10 years ago and have added to it a number of times so the basic character has changed.
I am firing both chambers of my 2 chamber noborigama. Feldspar glaze wants as close to an oxidation atmosphere as can be achieved. This kiln is a Karatsu style, low roofed design modeled on Nishioka Kyoju’s and the first room will only fire, at best, to a medium oxidation, i.e., medium reduction. The second room will go pretty close to oxidation which is why I am firing the feldspar in it. I haven’t decided what to put into the first room. I usually fire ash glaze but for some reason I don’t remember I fired all the ash glaze ware last time along with some kohiki. I think I will put some tiles, I have over 2000, in the first room.
Here are some new bowls out of my noborigama.
This video shows the first step in repairing blistered glaze,
For more on this technique see http://www.kintugi.com/
Here is my newest piece. It is a wood fired kohiki piece with gold leaf over red lacquer.
I am doing a small test firing to try to figure out what to do with the first room of my kiln. I have enough feldspar work to fill the second room but not enough to fill the first. Feldspar wants a low to medium reduction which the second room does fine but the first doesn’t. I am thinking about just filling the first with refires. The puppy is helping load.
I am almost finished with cleaning out the firebox and 2 rooms of the kiln. I planned on firing this coming week but won’t make it by a long shot.
I just got 2 bundles of wood from a local mill and a new-to-me bandsaw. The bundles are very large, about 4 meters long by about 1.5 meters tall. 500 yen each. The bandsaw was also a good price, 10,000 yen.
I had a phone call today from a Japanese antiques dealer asking if I could meet one of his clients who is interested in my bowls. Unfortunately I missed the phone call and only found out because he called my cellular phone and I called him back.
When I started out selling work I make I focused exclusively on selling to galleries. I did that for a number of years and found out I don’t have the right attitude for that type of selling. It was a very difficult and trying process to fully understand that what most people selling any kind of art strive for was neither interesting nor rewarding to me. The experience led down many paths and many revelations. One is the theory I have of people whose physical image and presentation of themselves doesn’t match the line of work they are in. I sometimes see or meet someone in daily life doing some job and there is a tremendous mismatch between the job they are doing and both the way they present themselves and their physical appearance. An example I saw today is of Aaron Neville singing ‘Step Right Up’,
I like both him and the song but there seems to be a basic mismatch between what I expect the voice, content of the song, and his appearance to be. I don’t know which part of the equation is the mismatch for me but I have had more experiences than I care to remember of Japanese gallery owners either asking me to come to their gallery or they coming to my house to talk about them carrying my work which in most cases they were already familiar with. My ‘image’ and my work has been cited more times than I can remember as to why the relationship wouldn’t go anywhere. Basic mismatch.
I decided some years ago to sell my work through venues other than galleries and have turned down all gallery show offers for the past several years and also a couple of newspaper or magazine interviews. Only because they, the interviews, were in Japan/Japanese and I no longer, for the most part, hawk my wares in Japan. The learning process of how to sell the work I make (I have never stopped making and firing work even though I now only spend 2 and 1/2 hours a day in my studio) has been long and I still have a long way to go. These small successes are very sweet to me. Much more than I can really relay.
Here are the bowls from my last firing that have been bought by Japanese antiques dealers.
We went to Kansai Airport last night to pick up our new puppy. He is a New Foundland and Labrador mix, 2 months old.
Nanban ceramics 