Yummy Neriage

 1995

 

This winter, I am taking a colored porcelain class with Ruth Borgenicht at the Art School at Old Church.   Last year, I happend to get Axner's colored porcelain, happened to find a wonderful book about Neriage when I visited Japan to see mom,  and happened to see Ruth displaying her beautiful Neriage pieces for her new class on the shelf at the school.  I was very glad to have these happenings and here I am.    I enjoy it but it is not easy! 
 

   At this moment, I just enjoy making patterns.

 

 

 

I was little tired mending cracks and scraping, so today I worked in the kitchen.  

 

It was fun.  The procedure is almost same, but the big difference is that they mend by themselves.  Clay gets dry but cookie dough gets soften while working with warm hands. 

  

 

 It was a fun day!

 



Noborigama Firing

The wood firing took place over the weekend January 25th to the 27th.

We prepared our pots with flashing slip and glaze all day Friday.

On Saturday we wadded our pieces, brought them outside in the freezing cold and placed them on tables and shelves according to where we wanted them to go in the kiln. There is a wood chamber that is nearest the main fire box and a salt chamber that is between the wood chamber and the chimney.

Everyone was busy at their work station, either delivering pots, loading pot calling for specific sizes or preparing kiln posts.

The door in the photo above is the wood chamber. Two of my cups are on the top shelf next to Barbara's big cat.  The door one photo above the wood chamber photo is the salt chamber.  I guess my pots are in there somewhere.  Bruce Dehnert estimated we could load about 200 to 250 pots.  I think we packed them in there pretty tightly.

I hope my cup isn't touching the cat.

A little fire breathing demo to breakup the night.  Potters are crazy.

After a long night of maintaining a temp of 1000 to 1600 degrees F the real stoking begins.

Our fearless leader, Bruce.

 After many hours of adding wood, the salt kiln was ready for some NaCl.
This is Christina adding salt on a long flat board. After a week of cooling,
we will be unloading tomorrow.  I can't wait to see everyone's pots!

The wood firing workshop through The Art School at Old Church is finally happening.

Here I am in my new apron, courtesy of Ellen Mulligan, ready to make a few more pieces for an upcoming wood firing in the Peters Valley Noborigama kiln.

Its been difficult to get too dirty with my stylish splint on my wrist, but I think I have an idea.  If I use a mold I won't get too messy.  

This mold is a favorite of mine from a few years back.

  

The lemons look good enough to eat, almost.

Can you tell which are the real lemons.

I made a lid to seal up the hole left by the pour spout of the mold. The seam will also have to be erased and then these will be bisqued and fired in the wood kiln.

My friend, Mikhail

This links to the obit for Mikhail Zakin

http://www.northjersey.com/obituaries/170134366_Artist_Mikhail_Zakin_dies_at_92.html?scpromo=1



It takes a while to absorb a loss, sometimes. Especially when you can still hear the voice, or something happens in everyday life, and you imagine their reaction, before realizing, with a start, that they are no longer there. No more sharing an exciting new artist, or planning a field trip, or just a wonderful lunch and conversation.



Mikhail Zakin recently passed away. Her life was adventurous, and she really was a citizen of the world. She was a wonderful person, a teacher of great insight, a philosopher, but most of all an artist.



She brought her sculptor's eye and hand to clay, and her work has a connection to the earth itself. Here is a link of her presentation to the Potters Guild of New Jersey:

http://youtu.be/Ey2BkOFiMBk


Mikhail was my teacher, my mentor and my friend. She was so generous in sharing her studio, kiln and home. I was lucky, lucky, very lucky to know her.

This past year Mikhail and I worked on a project to make a book of her ceramic work. She had so much to share, I could barely keep up. I'm very happy that we got a chance to finish it together (trust me, I was just following her directions). Thank you, Mikhail.



http://www.blurb.com/books/3511885#

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Tomo Potters @ Peters Valley!

Itsuko, Sandy and I will be at Peters Valley Fine Craft Fair next weekend, September 29th and 30th. (please click on 'Peters Valley Fine Craft Fair' for craft fair details, including coupon)

We have been working hard, getting ready. And we look forward to seeing you! This is a lovely craft fair, in a beautiful part of the New Jersey countryside. The work presented is some of the best, and it is hard for me to keep myself inside the booth, I want to check everything out.

We will be in booth 5-108, so please stop by.

Also, the Potters Guild of New Jersey will be there, with a wonderful variety of our potters represented.

It's a desert time!

I finally found the best ice cream cup.  It's Ellen Mulligan's.  I love her heart-warming artwork.   This cup is the right size to hold one scoop of my favorit ice cream for the desert after our dinner.  I always get one for me and one for my husband so I chose the slghtly bigger cup for him.

 He enjoys it.

These cups make us happy and healthy!!  Thanks Ellen!



Breakfast with Itsuko

I have been stock-piling photos of my breakfast for a few days, so I could show the range of bowls I have by my friend, Itsuko Ishiguro. Besides being a wonderful friend, she is a very, very talented potter. And I can't resist adding to my collection when we are setting up for a sale, and Itsuko has a new series of bowls. They are just beautiful!

As usual, the breakfast is yogurt, berries and pumpkin flaxseed granola.

This bowl (I have a matching mug) is one of my first purchases:

My niece and her husband are proud owners of a dinnerware set of this pattern.

This earthenware bowl has a slightly off-center shape that fits perfectly cradled in my hand. It is used almost every day, and has the chips to prove it!

This bowl has a lovely carved pattern. Itsuko does a series of these, with each bowl having a different, intricate pattern. This is not really clear from these photos:

So I took a photo of the bowl upside down:

Today's breakfast was in a special bowl. It takes a bit more care to use, but it is so much fun...the delicate bowl, inscribed with blossoms in white-on-white, has a rounded base and sits on a dark, unglazed and textured base, with a circle cut-out for the bowl to rest in. I use it both installed in the base...

...and cradled in my hand:

(Thanks, Honey, for helping me take this photo!)

The reward at the end is a wonderful view of those delicate incised flowers:

Sorry my photos aren't better, but trust me, the level of craftsmanship is very, very high. I enjoy every moment spent with this work, and look forward to every show that we do together. The unpacking of Itsuko's new work is exciting for all of her fellow potters. Thank you, Itsuko!

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