What's going on

I've been super busy with graduate school applications and haven't been keeping up with my blog much lately. By the end of March I'll be back to normal though, but for now I'll just post blogs with lots of info and pics.

First is my giant vase, I sanded it again last weekend and some more holes appeared so I filled those and I'll sand it one more time before letting it be. Shouldn't be long now until it can get bisque fired.
















On Saturday, while I was sanding my vase, a Sasebo TV crew came to film the studio and Arai Sensei. They filmed me sanding my vase (not very exciting haha) but I was on TV this past week. The program was about things and places in Saza, they do it every year. Besides getting shots of the studio they filmed Arai sensei making a big vase on the wheel. Afterwords the three crew tried making their own cup. One of the crew was a French intern from Nagasaki university. Here he is getting advice from Arai Sensei.










Next are the pencil holders and two cups from a few weeks back. They've been bisque fired so I glazed them last night. A lot of the colors I like were out so it gave me the chance to experiment with colors I wouldn't normally choose and be creative with the colors left.
Joshigaraki clay, Glaze L (green) on the base with glaze E (red) as the accent on the top and inside. OF firing






Joshigaraki clay. Glaze C as the base bottom and glaze Z as the accent color at the top and inside. RF firing






Joshigaraki clay. Glaze I (light pale white blue) with an accent dip of glaze Z over the handle. RF firing






Joshigaraki clay. Glaze R, RF firing.







Here are all the pieces after the glazes were applied with their color samples next to them.











And last, three pieces I made last night with my left over bits of clay. I had joshigaraki and regular shigaraki so I mixed those and made the bowl and cup on the right. I also had a good amount of bizen so I tried making some plates (first one flopped) and the second one turned out so so. I'm waiting to see how it dries before I decide to keep it. It was a little wobbly and dipped in the center.





Until next time!!