mmmmmm....woodfire

Day 3 of Akira Satake's workshop and another lovely day. I've made peace with the fact that I just won't get much done for the new studio this week, and yet every day I manage to slip in a few things and if nothing else, phone calls and appointments were made!

Meanwhile back at the workshop, this being the third time I've assisted and been able to watch Akira work up close, some of his philosophy and aesthetic that I admire so are finally sinking in a bit. This is definitely a good example of why I took the Residency and how I've made the very most of the opportunities that have come along the way. I think Akira's class or workshop was one of the first I took when I arrived, so it's a rather nice bookend to have his be one of the last I take under the Residency.

I worked on a few chawans today - ceremonial tea bowls made by combining two wheel thrown pieces in a nicely organic process. No, of course I didn't take a picture, but I will tomorrow, it's drying on the shelf tonight. We've talked a lot this week about 'wabi sabi' and the beauty of imperfection, and it was a lot of fun to work with crunchy clay, beating it up and letting it do its own thing while creating something that by itself has a lot of beauty, not to mention the potential with the right glaze in the right firing. Akira's examples of his shigaraki fired chawans are beautiful in so many obvious and subtle ways. And it may be the same thing, but I recently read an article on 'shibui' that makes me think that term is more suited to the experience of making these chawans. I think I'll save at least one for Akira's next firing and see what comes of it.

As for today's image offerings, I have shots of some of the pots that came out of Akira's first firing of the train kiln:

yummy ash drips and runs. in the background is part
of a kohiki piece, and on the right is a sliver shot of
a piece made with Akira's clay

shino teabowl - frosty finish is from reduction cooling, which
he does for about four hours at the end of the 40+ hour firing.

this is one of my tumblers that he put in - it has a couple of shino
layers, with brushwork on the other side, but this side just seemed a
whole lot cooler to show.

With almost impeccable timing, Lissa is letting me know it's time to take a stroll. peace - LT