Last Day, Already

It's hard to believe a month has already passed. And, at the same time, it's amazing I've accomplished so much in just a month. I can only imagine how great it would be to come here for 3 months, to have time to test glazes and adjust to new clay and try different kilns and make so many things. I've been asked by a few members of the staff if I will come back again sometime and stay longer, and I have told them all that I would love to. Because, of course I would! This is such an amazing place to work.

So, yesterday I bought boxes, and packing materials, and more glaze to bring home. After I fired Tuesday, then again yesterday I took pictures of all of my finished work. There's a sort of "photo studio" set up outside under the awning... it's just two platforms painted white, which were from Nel's earlier displays, but they work remarkably well for photos in the daylight. I used some of the photos to apply to the 5th World Ceramic Biennale of 2009 in Korea (at the very last minute, too - applications were due on the 30th!), and packed up those pieces. The staff met this morning and decided which one of the others they'd like to have for the museum - I felt bad they could not choose from them all, but I've already sent in applications, and what would I do if a piece got accepted, but it was in the collection here? They chose the one which I've been calling East/West II, and I think it was a good choice. I'll be happy to know it is here. So, beyond all that, I've just been trying to finish up more photos, more packing, more paperwork, some cleaning... This is my last day, and there's all these little things to do. I'll ship a couple of boxes of work home later today, clean up my work space and my room, and leave early tomorrow morning. It's amazing how much faster time flies by when there's some kind of deadline involved!

I'm amused, looking back on this blog, to see how much longer my posts became as I got busier and actually sat down to write here less often. It's become a bit of a photo journal, really, but what I've been doing is so visual, of course words could not suffice to explain it all. Ah, well, back to work. I'll try to say a bit more here later, before I go home. I also have every intention of continuing to post every once in awhile, even though my residency will be over. With any luck, there will be updates about exhibitions, the safe arrival of the work I've shipped home, and other news related to all I've done this month! Besides, I suppose I should post some of the final photos of the pieces, shouldn't I?!

A little more work, a little more glaze, a little more fire...

Even though I should've been done making things long before... I got bored on Saturday. I kept looking at all my extra clay, and thinking about how much I'd like to be using it rather than leaving it behind, and I was just going to be watching a movie that night... So...

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!

At Last, Raku!

I finally fired yesterday - so exciting! There were really remarkably few differences from the process I use at home. The oil-drip burner was fueled with kerosene, and had an electric fan. Their kiln is much wider and shallower than the one I use at home, so I was able to load all of the pieces I had ready at once, and finish them all in one firing. I have more that will be ready to fire Tuesday, but some are taller, so I'm not certain if I will be able to put them in without laying them on their sides. The firing itself took about 4 hours, which is much longer than the hour or so I usually take, and they only went up to about 850 degrees Celsius which is only about a cone 014 or 012, or around 1500 degrees Fahrenheit. The glazes I use at home fire to around cone 06 or 04, which is closer to 1800-1900 degrees Fahrenheit. We started the firing around 11a.m., and took everything out around 3p.m., and most of the time in between, I had nothing to do and was pacing like an anxious mother. When the firing was finished and we went to take everything out of the kiln, I found out that they usually sit the pieces out in the air to let them cool for a few minutes before putting them in the reduction, while I would usually put them directly in. They do that to let the glaze solidify, so it will not pick up any texture... on the other hand, most Americans seem to want that texture from the reduction materials! They use rice hulls for the reduction whereas I use sawdust, and they do not cover the pieces, instead just sitting them gently on top. We probably left them in the reduction for 2 or 3 hours - after 30 minutes or so, they told me I could take them out then, but if we left them in longer, they might get a better color. The results were certainly satisfactory after a longer time!

I took as many pictures as I could, even though it was a bit difficult since I was an active participant in the process. I also took a video when we were pulling everything out of the kiln, and even though it is not a very good angle, you should be able to get an idea of what is going on :)

When I arrived at 10a.m., everything was nearly set up.


All loaded and ready to go!


Lighting the burner.


A closer shot of the burner.


The digital pyrometer and thermocouple... I think every kiln I've seen here has these. How nice! But I fire my raku by sight at home, so they wouldn't be too helpful with that, at least.


At around 400 degrees, I walked by and noticed there was no more fire... because there was no more kerosene! The kiln probably dropped 100 degrees before they filled the tank and re-lit the burner, but it didn't seem to cause any problems.


844 degrees, ready to go!


The sound isn't very good here because of the lawnmower sounds and such in the background. But, you can see everything coming out of the kiln. You can also see when the lip broke off one of the pieces as I tried to pick it up - no worries, I saved the broken piece and it will glue back on nicely.


Waiting... waiting... waiting...


Voila!


All nicely reduced.


And the finished products, still needing some cleaning of course. I'm going to take some better pictures of them tomorrow, before I ship them home.


As soon as my pieces were out of the kiln and into the reduction, the staff loaded the kiln again with some of their own work.


I was surprised that they often glaze the entire piece, even the bottom, but they do make little clay stands to set them on which break off easily after the firing. I was also very surprised that they stacked these tea bowls, but there didn't seem to be any damage to the finished product.


And if you put a few little branches in here like this...


The kiln does this!


Admiring their finished work.

So there you have it. And, by the way, sorry for the delay in posting this. There were some problems getting the video to work, so even though I wrote this all out Sunday, I think it may not show up until about Tuesday or so.