Not Much

It's getting warmer and warmer here in Japan and the sakura trees are in full bloom now! Here is a pic of some of the trees near the studio. The trees go up onto the side of the mountain as well. Almost makes the mountain look like it has patches of snow on it.
Anyways, only a few things this post. Here is a plate waiting for bisque firing I finished up carving the other night. I made 2 other cups along with it but ended up trashing them since they just didn't turn out well. This one is still mediocre but it'll be a good plate to use at home since I don't have many this shape and size.






I did a pretty good job carving it. Since red stone clay is the most rough and grainy it can be really hard to carve. Stones end up getting in the way and this clay wears tools out very quickly. it's best to carve red stone clay soon after making it (within a few days) other wise the clay gets hard and difficult to manage. I didn't get around to this one until a week later and it was pretty hard. It took twice as long to carve and I couldn't take as much off the bottom as I had hoped for fear of cracking it. It's a little heavy but sometimes that's good for plates ;)

This past weekend the local English teachers had a fundraiser for the Tohoku earthquake. I couldn't make it due to an event in Imari (more on that next post) so I donated some of my work to the cause. Just a few plates or cups like the ones pictured there. I was hoping to give some better pieces (maybe coffee/tea cups) but my transferring teachers cleared me out a few weeks before. (These were given away as prizes.)




Last, here are some vases my teacher made. I just wanted to post them so you can see the differences between a beginner and a pro. His vases are amazing and they only take him a few minutes to make on the wheel. These four went into the noborigama that took place this past Saturday. A post about that to follow next week after the pieces come out of the kiln.





Until next time!

Forgotten Things

Yummmm, breakfast I made on dishes I made. Nothing better than that!

Anyways, this post is mostly things I forgot to post the final version of. So I'll start from the oldest.

First is this small vase I made a few months back in this batch of pieces. I forgot to take photos of the two cups since I gave them away as presents, but the color looks pretty much the same. Bizen clay with X glaze and brush strokes of an iron based red color and undertones of a white glaze called kaorin.














Next is one of two pencil holders. Glaze C on bottom and Glaze Z on the top. Joshigaraki clay. RF firing

















The other pencil holder, Glaze L on bottom with glaze E on top. Joshigaraki clay. OF firing

















Last is a cup I made. Glaze I with accent glaze Z on the handle. Joshigaraki clay, RF firing.











Here is a close up of the glaze, as time passes the glaze cracks and you get this great accent. I love lighter glaze colors with white clay since you can see the cracking. It's a nice effect. Depending on the clay and glaze combo this doesn't always happen.






























Here is a green ware bowl that I carved recently. Its bizen clay. I decided to try something new. I put a slip of kaorin (a white mate glaze) on the inside and outside.

















I did two coats to make sure I get a nice white effect. Once this is bisque fired I'll either do a clear glaze or a light colored glaze over. The white will basically remain how it is.

















I also did this design on the side. I've seen this around on other pottery and I liked it a lot. It looks complicated but it's actually relatively easy. Refer to this blog entry on how it's done. To get this effect, put the slip on and let dry, then chip away. The white glaze won't run so the jagged marks will stay as is. I was hoping to get this into the noborigama, but it won't dry in time. Oh well. Either way, I'm excited to see how this turns out.

















Lastly, three new pieces I made on the wheel with a clay I haven't worked with in quite awhile, red stone clay. It's extremely grainy and rocky so it hurt my hands but once I get back into the swing of using it I'll get better. These turned out so so, but I decided to wait and see how they dry before I keep or trash them.

Until next time!

It's been too Long!!!

Spring at the studio! Cherry blossoms are blooming along with other flowers.













It has officially been way too long since I have last posted. My graduate school essays and applications are all done with so I can finally focus on pottery again. I have skipped out on lots of time slots so not much has been done in March. But there are still a few new things I'd like to share.

Title "Blue Moon"

First and foremost, I entered this vase in the Imari International Amateur Ceramics Contest and won honorable mention! (4th place) I was so surprised and happy about the award! I wasn't expecting it at all. It is my first official award of any sorts pertaining to my pottery. Feels great to have achieved something :) It will be on display from April 1st to 10th at the Nabeshima Pottery center in Imari City. Awards ceremony will be on the 10th at 2pm. I'm so excited!

On to regular business

Remember these? Well they turned out awful! So I re-glazed them all one color and am hoping for a better outcome. The handles are the finished product, but there is a base of a white glaze under the red and light green so I hope they won't turn out worse. I'll do OF firing, but there's not many pieces to fire right now so probably another few weeks until I know how they'll look. These were a lot of work so I'm hoping my effort pays off.




The wavy cup I made awhile back, it turned out pretty lovely actually. I gave it as a gift to one of my teachers at work who transferred. Joshigaraki clay with kohagi glaze RF firing.
















Next are a few simple pieces I made awhile back. I tried a new technique (new for me at least) and they turned out pretty well.

An indented design, very Japanese. I've seen it on many pottery pieces here in Japan and thought it was difficult to do, which is actually not so.









The key is this simple tool; a long curved metal ruler shaped thing. There's two type, rounded edge (left) and flat edge (right)

The rounded one is used for round surfaces like cups, and the flat is used for flat surfaces like straight bowls or plates.



Holding it at a certain angle while the wheel moves is the key to creating a vibration. The mild vibration causes the tool to bounce up and down creating the design.

This picture is a demo, as you can see I'm not at the wheel but it looks something like this. Getting the angle right is tricky at first (looked terrible when I first did it) but after some practice it turned out quite well. (Sorry don't know why this photo is crooked, tried turning it around many times on blogger...)










When done correctly it should look something like this. Mine is still a little off, but this looks so much better from my first try.










These two have since been bisque fired and glazed. I choose a nice green shiny glaze. My teacher recommended shiny glazes (ones that look like glass) since the glaze will settle into the indents and show off the design better. Other matte or thick glazes won't show the design as well since they'll just end up covering it up.






Here are two other bowls from this month too, plain and jo shigaraki clay. U glaze on the left and B glaze on the right.









These four glazed pieces will go into the next noborigama which is April 9th. So soon! It kinda crept up on me this time so I only have these four pieces going in this time.

Well that's it for now! Until next time!

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!!

busy busy busy

It's been a busy few weeks so I haven't had much time to upload onto my blog here. Few new things...

My vase is almost finished, I spent a few hours sanding it last Saturday and discovered there's a few small holes so of course I had to fix those up. Arai Sensei showed me how

First you have to make the hole a little bigger. I know it sounds strange but in order for the clay to bond well with the vase you need to have a good area to put it in.









Next you have to wet the area with water and a brush.











Last, stick a small amount of clay inside the hole and smooth it out with something flat. It should look like this when it's done. The dark area where the hole was filled is a different color since it has to dry.

Make sure they clay you use to fill the hole is the same clay you used to make the piece. It's been a few days since I fixed the holes but the color is still different since I may have used the wrong clay...I won't know until it's bisque fired. But the holes are so small it shouldn't make a difference.













Next were some cups I made awhile back that I carved. Here is the first one, basic coffee cup with handle added.

















Last were two pencil jars I made. Swirly design. I used joshigaraki, these will dry and be bisque fired later.









Remember these two? Well they've been bisque fired, sanded and glazed.
Both are joshigaraki.










Slightly larger one's body is glaze G (white cream color) and the handle is L (green color) OF firing






Small one's body is also glaze G, but the handle is E (rusty red color) OF firing.






Glaze G is super thick but doesn't run so I had to scrape away a lot of glaze after these dried to make sure the pieces won't be lump after being fired. I've also never used this clay and these colors before so it should be fun to see how they turn out. (Good I hope!)








And finally, two larger bowls I made out of regular shigaraki. They're pretty thin so I'm a little worried about when I carve them.

Anyways, that's all for now! Next blog will be coming up soon!

Lovely Afternoon

It was a nice mild winter day so I headed on over to pottery and spent about an hour sanding down my vase. Pretty much the same as last time, up and down and LOTS of dust. I wore a mask and glasses this time but I still managed to get covered in dust and had some get in my mouth and eyes a little. The breeze outside was helpful and not helpful at times >< Anyways, I'm still not done sanding. Next time I'll take a higher grade paper and re-do the whole thing again.











Remember this vase? Well it was its third time to the kiln and it FINALLY turned out somewhat decent. I actually like the color a lot. Unlike anything I've made so far. Very happy with the turn out, third time was the charm I guess. I'll enter this in the Imari Amateur pottery contest coming up in April. Ill probably title it "Blue Moon" since it reminds of exactly of that.





My dashi holders were doing pretty good. I took the newspaper and cardboard out and the handles were still in a good place. (Not like I could do much if they weren't haha, they're already dried in place)








They'll dry for another week or so and go in for bisque firing.


















I still had another hour and a half so I took the rest of my Joshigaraki and made a few cups. I like to experiment with the wavy style so I did two of those and one regular shaped cup. I'll carve these next week.








Until next time!