This is the glaze and prep table at my Redmond studio and I’m getting ready to start packing for the Anagama load in just over a week, weekend after next 5/16 and 5/17.
I have time for one more bisc next week and freshly thrown parts drying for six more teapots which will be the last of the kiln share.
I’ve often felt rushed and tight while making for my share. We sign up for a certain volume (in cubic feet aka “cubes”) and I’m typically signing up for 5 cubes months in advance of a firing like this. This may be the first in a while that I’m comfortably hitting that space well enough in advance that I’m not overly rushed this week and even have more volume made and bisced than I’m necessarily responsible for to the crew.
#woodfire #anagama #bisc #glaze
Guess which teacup I dropped transferring it to the trimming wheel. How is it I like this one best?
36 cups trimmed today in my last push for the anagama this month.
I was given 300lbs of clay from a former UW @uw_3d4m student. These boxes are Takamori porcelain, which is still available @clayartcentertacoma but I have a feeling that the materials used in 1996 may have been a little different and while these have been drying out in storage for thirty years they may have a little juice dating back to when the late legendary Akio Takamori was ordering clay for making his work.
Now begins a slow process to thoroughly rehydrate it and work made from it will come through the studio in a few months.
It is my great pleasure to introduce the work of the talented ceramicist Jonathan Steele from Jonathan Steele Studio in Redmond, WA, USA, to a European audience.
I believe that many tea enthusiasts are already familiar with his work, and if not, be sure to follow him on Instagram - @jonathansteele.studio
We had been discussing a collaboration for quite some time, and we finally set a goal to present his first works for the first time in Europe at the tea festival in Prague, which took place in February and we succeeded.
Now I’m sharing a few photos of his shiboridashis.
Teapots, teapots with wooden handles, kyusu, and tea spoons will follow.
If you’re interested, visit the teaterroir.com online store and keep following us on IG :).
#tea #teatime #clayartist #claysculpture #teaterroir #ashglaze #glaze #shiboridashi #cha #teaceremony #cha #greentea #japanesetea #greentealover #japaneseteapot #japaneseteaware #woodfiring #anagama #teatime #teaaddict #shiboridashi #tokoname #teajars #teacaddy
This is how I prepare my gaiwan to load into the wood kiln.
The flared, thin lips on these gaiwan bowls have a real tendency to oval or otherwise warp a little in the long, hot woodfirings and even the slightest ovaling ruins the way the lid fits. Firing the bowl upside down mitigates this dramatically and I have a much better success rate this way.
It can also be a headache trying to keep the lid and bowl together with all the shuffle and the many hands that are involved in loading a wood kiln. So to resolve that I’ve been making a little clay slab with pillar stand for each gaiwan. It holds the bowl upside down and keeps the lid and the bowl together to be loaded and unloaded as a unit.
The other detail is I want the lid upstream of the bowl in the draught so that the bowl doesn’t cast too much shadow on the lid and so they both get better ash effect.
These here are just going into the bisc at my place as I prep for two May firings. Nine gaiwans and stands are in the bisc today.
#gaiwan #woodkiln #anagama
Quite a bit of my best work from last season is now on display at @yushuteagallery@yushu_archive in London.
I’m very pleased to be working with them and am hoping the relationship continues to grow, takes me to London to show new work in person, and even eventually connects me to Jingdezhen and Chaozhou, China for opportunities to continue to refine my craft and grow my audience. These are exciting prospects!
#teaware #teagallery
I’m just starting to get ready for my last firings of the season at the end of May. The Memorial Day Anagama firing I do every year plus a reduction cooling with charcoal-bury zone in the test kiln (the Firetruck) at Pleasant Hill Pottery.
