INVASION!!!
The tiny things took over my table. It was fun, really, and since I put them in the drying room that night they were dry in time for my bisque on Sunday (I had just one of the bigger pieces that hadn't been dry enough for the last bisque, so I ran the tiny electric test kiln.). Sunday night, by the way, was very much fun. There was a going away / welcome party for the 3 of us who are leaving this week, and for the two new guys who recently arrived from Laos. It was great, of course - everyone fixed different dishes, so there was a huge variety of delicious food, some of the staff, including Takae-sensei, came and joined us, there was music, sake, even some dancing! I think I was up until 2a.m. (not just because of the party, but also because my kiln finished late) and I think I was still one of the first to go to bed!
This, by the way, is the piece I forgot to take a picture of before bisquing:
And some photos from the party:
Serving curry, and Takae-sensei holding Matsunami-san's baby.
Just talking...
I thought this was a very cute picture of Kyoko (she's the one holding the baby... he got passed around a lot again, of course).
Oishii!! ("Tasty!")
Ah, well, maybe dancing doesn't come out so well in photos... At one point, there were about 10 of us out there making fools of ourselves :)
So, anyway, as of Monday evening everything was finally bisqued and sufficiently cooled, and since I'd asked to fire the raku kiln again on Tuesday, I spent the evening glazing. I think I explained before that I decided to go ahead and use some of the commercial raku glazes they had here so that I wouldn't need to worry about testing anything. However, I don't know if I ever shared any pictures of the glaze room...
This is it!
And the closet full of various glaze materials for use.
And the shelves of glazes and cabinets full of colorants and other interesting powders.
And the next batch of my work, in the midst of being glazed!
On Tuesday morning, then, I loaded my last kiln full of work. It was a rainy day - most of the last week or so has been rainy, unusually so for September here - but the staff set up the kiln under the awning, which is pretty high, so it wasn't a problem. Then, a few hours later, voila! More finished pieces. I was particularly happy with how some of these turned out. But, I guess I can really say I'm happy with how all of my work has come out here. It's been an extremely productive and enjoyable month! Unfortunately, I didn't get to take very many pictures of this firing.
I think we went through 5 or 6 thermocouples before one seemed to be giving the right reading (or in some cases, any reading at all!).
They never said why they started out using this burner (which is actually the one they used to light the oil-drip burner last time)... except that the staff seemed to be running a little behind that morning, and it would suffice for the first few hundred degrees.
Finished!
And some more!
I think raku always draws a crowd. It's so quick! So fun!
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