Ninth Class, Tues. Aug. 6th, Firing and Bad Trimming

 The kiln is fireing and This time I'm a puller. That is I have long gloves and tongues and I'm reaching into the red hot kiln and pulling out pottery. The heat is blasting out of the kiln, sweat is pouring down my forehead. Everything is going well till I try to grab a round shaped pot. It starts to roll of the shelf. Luckily Andrew is there with his tongues and saves it before it falls to its destructions. We continue  putting the pots into a trash can filled with news paper shreds. The extremely hot pottery sets the paper on fire. The cans are quickly closed, the oxygen is shut off and whatever is not glazed is chard a flat black. After about five minutes of this I grab the tongues and search through the burning/smoldering paper to find the raku pots; clasp them and dunk them into the water bucket. As soon as Joan has her pots taken out of the kiln she carefully puts horse hair on her pots creating interesting patterns. Unfortunately I didn't have any pottery in this firing. After helping with the clean up, I start trimming the pots I threw the day before. It doesn't go well, I must have thrown them a little off center. I have a great deal of difficulty getting them centered again, and eventually cut through two of them. The planter  is a disaster, I'm only able to save one of them.                                                                                    

Extra time, Monday August the 5th

I'm in this evening trying to throw a few more pots. I'm throwing more clay than usual and trying a variety of shapes. I may have bit off more then I can throw. A large bowl goes well but a tall vase gives me trouble. I think I've saved it but it looks off. I considered throwing two small bowls instead of another large piece. Against my better judgement I go for another large piece. I try to make a planter with an attached bowl. At first it goes well but as I fuss with it I start having trouble and decide I have it as good as I can get it. I cut it off the wheel and then realize what a big mistake I've made. I didn't throw it on a bat and the wide drain bowl makes it very difficult to slide off. As I try to slide it on to a board the bowl gets deformed. Once safely on the board I attempt to make the best of it and bend the bowl into a wave pattern. Over all things did not go as well as I would like and leave the Craft Center a little down.

Eighth Class, Aug. 2nd, Not There, but Where

A couple of months ago I signed up for a meditation retreat at a center in New York State. The retreat was very good but while I was trying to be in the present and clear my mind I was occasionally thinking of pottery.

Seventh Class, Tues. July 30th A Lot of Trimmig

A large bowl and three vases and a long night of trimming. The bottoms are thicker so I have room to make some respectable feet. I'm reasonable happy with the results but tired of trimming.

Sixth Class, July 26th Firing and New Pots

A new firing today and I'm going to be a puller. That is, I'm the one to reach into the red hot kiln and actually pull out the pots. I have my long glove and tongues and as Jinny cranks up the kiln I reach in with the tongues and grab the the pots. From the kiln they are put in the paper filled can. Soon as the pots touch the paper they set it a blaze. after ten minutes of smoldering we grab them withe the tongues again and put them into a water bucket. Three of my pieces are taken from the bucket and again I have lucky results. Afterwards I'm back at the wheel throwing a few more pots.

Samurai and Raku

The Boston Museum of Fine Arts had an extensive show of Samurai armer, helmets, and weapons this summer. On the surface that may not seem to have much to do with Raku pottery, but they both have deep connections with  Zen Buddhism and the Tea Ceremony. Samurai's warrior code and the Tea Ceremony's Raku bowls both grew out of Zen Buddhism. In medieval Japan militarism, aesthetics, and religion all mingled together. The masks and helmets are amazingly bizarre and imaginative. Many are so complex and impractical they must have been for ceremonies and not for warfare. Earlier in the term Jinny suggested creating 3 small masks. What better inspiration than the Samurai.

Fifth Class, July 23, Glazing and More Glazing

It has to be done, and my opinion may change, but I find glazing less enjoyable than the building and throwing. This whole class, from beginning to end was glazing. Not the quick dunking and dripping of stone ware but slow careful painting. Each color has to be checked against the test pots we already fired. Those fired practice glazes reveal the true secret colors of each bucket and bottle. A Raku firing transforms each color into surprising results. We need to carefully check each test glaze, and thoughtfully plan each color combination if we expect to have positive results. Luckily one of the potters carefully painted and recorded many of the glazes, I less carefully tried a few more, and another student labeled each finished experiment with tape. This gave us good examples to pick from. By the end of the class I had 6 pots ready to be fired. That's 2 an hour; pretty slow.