I've been away from the blog for awhile.  Here are some of the things that I have been working on lately. Raku has been the latest thing that has come my way.  Yes the Raku kiln is wood fired. These are made with a technique that the Japanese call kurinuki.  Kurinuki is starting with a solid piece of clay and carving out the inside to make a pot.  Hope you enjoy the latest.

Make Good Pots

~Craig

Taking a breath

With just two firing a year (this year just one) there is always a period where I take a deep breath and look at what came out of the kiln. A time, where the latest pots will show me a road to go down. I examine them again and again, reading their stories.  The interaction between and fire and the clay. The surface that results from the flame dropping ash and heat as it travels over the pots, leaving it's mark of nature, has always fascinated me.
Here are a few more to look at.


Make Good Pots ~Craig

Fall Anagama Firing

I try to fire the New London Anagama twice a year. This year because of a trip to Korea and Japan the kiln only got fired once. We fired in September this year, the firing had it's share of problems. I try not to make the same mistakes twice... these problems were all in the new mistake category. Nice to know that there is always something new to learn.  Any way here are a few photo's of some of the pots that came out of the fall 2012 firing.

Yunomi from the fall firing

Here are some yumomi from the fall firing. They all have the same carbon trap glaze on them. The glaze really likes the flame and records it well. The pots tell nice tales of the fire and ash.
Make good pots,
~Craig

Reality

Pictures of pots are always nice to post.  Especially if you've had a great firing. The reality of wood firing is a  lot of cutting, splitting and stacking wood. The chainsaw, wood splitter  and wheel barrow have been in my hands this week. It has been a race with winter. Winter has held off longer than usual, but it is not timid and will make an entrance any day now.
The saw mill had some good wood for me this year and was able to get all the wood I need for next years firing.  There are two kinds of wood, the slab wood, and edgings.
The edgings are the skinny pieces that we use for sidestoking at the end of the firing.
Well must go before winter sets in.
Make Good Pots,
~Craig

Some Yunomi

Here are a couple of Yunomi from the firing. These got some drama from the flyash.

I put some salt cups in and I think that this yunomi was sitting next to one. 

Well it's warmed up some so splitting wood is the order of the day.
Cheers,
Make Good Pots.

Little bowl fresh from firing

Here is a little bowl from the back of the kiln. The kiln is still about 300F, but I was able to reach in stoke hole 5 and pull it out.  It's been cooling for three days and we might be able to unload tomorrow.

Here is the mandatory flaming chimney picture.  They are always fun.
Cheers,
Make good pots,
Craig

Morning thoughts

It is the morning, before the mind gets bombarded with the doings that make up days. The morning coffee is made.  Lynn is still sleeping. The pendulum on the clock is the only sound as it measures off time in a relaxed and gentle way. The clock was my great grand parents and has been in the family for over 100 years.  It has been  a constant and reliable companion every morning since childhood.  The dialog that it has with time, opens me up, to the endless possibilities of the day, a sure cure for the poverty of the imagination.
The work for the fall firing is starting. Now that the spring firing has been properly dealt with all thoughts are looking ahead to the fall.
Beginning at the beginning is always good ... mixing clay is what is in store for the day.
Here are some pics of tea bowls from the last firing.

Make good pots,
~Craig

Heron

In the morning as I type, a great blue heron quietly glides in and gently lands on the dock. The dock can be seen from the window, next to the computer, and is a place where ducks rest and herons fish. 

The heron takes his time to arrive.  There is a transition period  between, gliding in, to actually "being" on the dock.  Upon landing, he steps a bit to position himself properly, slightly flaps his wings, and preens his feathers to make sure that none of his feathers are ruffled. Then bobs his head several times with a rhythm that makes you want to swallow. Head bobbing on that long heron neck, is something that defines the essence of what a heron is.  Next he surveys the surroundings, and slightly repositions himself.  Finally he straightens his neck, and stands full. At this moment, he has arrived, and starts patiently staring into the pond for the next meal. All these movements look slightly awkward, but the heron does them in such an elegant way.  It takes time to be majestic. 

Cheers,

Make Good Pots,

~Craig

Cleaning up pots, kiln and all the rest

Another day is spent doing the final cleaning of pots from the spring firing.   The very good ones are all lined up waiting to be photographed. There is a surprisingly  quite a few excellent ones and some stunners in the group. Cleaning and sorting takes a moderate amount of time. Unlike pots from electric or gas kilns, a lot of after fire finish work is required on some of the pots. This is a still time, a time to spend with the results of the making and firing. This is a time to get reacquainted with the pots, after there long journey in the kiln firing. They tell stories of living in a river of flame, of being buried completely in coals, to reemerge and perhaps be buried again. These are stories that echo of a life lived and stories of survival. Some tell stories of being in the right place at the right time, while others tell of being destroyed by a piece of poorly stoked wood, some are bland and underfired. A tale of a life not lived.

 The kiln is all cleaned of ash, a room waiting for some new arrivals.     The shelves are cleaned and washed with a fresh coat  of kiln wash, they remind me of new sheets on a bed, so clean and pristine.  Time to quit writing and get some rest.

Cheers,
Make Good Pots
~Craig

Copper Reds who knew!

I put some copper red glaze on some porcelain teabowls, and put them into the spring firing. Who knew that they would thrive in that environment. I'm sure that it is one of those things that if you come to depend on it, it will abandon you immediately.    Here is to hoping that it doesn't!
Cheers,
Make good pots,
~Craig

A long time a coming

Winter and spring have finally left and summer is here.  The spring firing was a great success. Here are two bowls from the firing.  The winter was an honest winter, with the promise of snow and cold properly fulfilled. Spring however turned out to be the ugly stepsister of Winter. Enough said about Spring.  Summer is here with it's warmth and sunshine.   Cheers.

woodpile

Thursday and part of Friday were used putting up wood. With the help of Leona, Lee, Jedd ; we were able to put up about four more cords of wood. I'm feeling a little smug about this at the moment. We worked hard to get the wood put aside because of a forecast snow on Saturday and Sunday. The wood work got done and it snowed on schedule, and we were not out in the snow, cutting and stacking.
The wood should be nice and seasoned for the spring firing. I may get another four cords next week if the weather improves. I always like to have a least, two firings worth of wood on hand when I fire. Three firings worth would be better, but I don't have the space right now. Having a surplus of wood takes away the stress of running out of wood, or having judgments on firing, not for the good of the pots, but because you might run out of wood.
Leona is a great wood stacker. She grew up with wood for heat, as one of the younger children of the family, her job was to stack the wood after it was split. The stokers can now thank her for wood that is very well organized, and neatly stacked. This doesn't seem like much, but on three to five day firings, organization makes a big difference.

Make good pots.
~Craig

New Kiln In Taku, Japan

Hello All: I haven't posted in a long time. A bit of time away from the computer was needed. Here is a link to what I have been up to,
http://karatsupots-workshop.blogspot.com/
This wood fired kiln was made in a workshop the Mike Martino hosted at his studio in Taku, Japan. I was the guest artist. Mike and I designed this kiln over a two year period. The workshop was glorious and the kiln that got built is top notch. I am very proud to have been a part of this project, and look forward to wood firing this new kiln in the spring.
The picture is of the first chamber of two chambers.
Sorry to have been away so long, it's good to be back.

~Cheers
Make good pots!!
~Craig

Getting ready again

The shelves are cleaned and washed, ready again for the next firing. Using the energy from the last firing helps to lead into the next. It's a very good time to think about what pots to make, and what direction to go, how you will fire differently.

Wood is always important, and there never seems to be enough, cut, split and stacked. This stack is from a blue spruce that came from my front yard.

This is the oak and birch that come from the saw mill by St. Cloud. I've got about half cut of what will be needed for the next firing. Well it's been rainy so the wood is on hold... time to make some mugs. ~ Make Good Pots

Just more...

It's one of those rainy days... that we really need here. Nice light rain that will probably continue for a day or more. Perfect weather to be inside working on pots for the next firing, and none to soon. All this firing and shelf and brick moving has left the hands in need of some clay therapy. The new camera isn't letting download pictures onto the computer, so here are a few random shots of random pots from the spring firing. So here are a couple of column from the middle of the kiln.

Little pots, lots of flyash.

Two columns still in the ashs. The colours on these worked out well, but the flash on the camera (the one that doesn't like the computer now) washed them out some. Well ~Make good pots~

handbuilt Teapot

Here was a nice surprise, this little handbuilt teapot was sitting in the second tier of pots. It's a shino with heavy fly ash. Can't wait to try it out. Then of course it becomes a used pot. ` Make good pots.

Starting to unload

Here is the door down with all the ash still in place. We got about 50 gallons of ash out of the firebox. Some will get used for glaze and the rest will be used on the lawn and flower beds as fertilizer.

Here is another picture of the columns. The camera has a flash so the colours are not quite right on these. It's a new camera so I'm still working out how this modern inconvenience works.

Here is Leona taking out some of the ash. We had a beautiful day to start to unload. The temp on the inside of the kiln was about 100F. Warm but not to bad. We waited for the kiln to get that cool not because the pots needed to be that cool to unload, but because we didn't want to get overheated unloading. We are going slow on unloading the pots, so that we can take the time to actually look at them! So besides unloading the kiln, we split wood, mowed the lawn and cleaned up around the kiln.

Finally here are some of the first columns to come out of the kiln. I'm pretty chuffed about the way they recorded the flame and ash. Well that's it for this post. Make good pots~~~