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copper red legend

updated thu 23 sep 10

 

Rimas VisGirda on mon 20 sep 10


Hi Vince, you forgot the punch line of the legend... After the potter threw=
himself into the kiln and the villagers opened the kiln... all the pieces =
were copper red! -Rimas

Rimas VisGirda on mon 20 sep 10


Way back when, H&V Pottery was housed in an old chicken shed. One day towar=
ds the end of a (wood) firing, a left-over chicken got into the shop; we co=
uld hear her clucking and flapping around. Hotchkiss went into the shop, wh=
ere she had messed up a bunch of wet greenware, got mad, grabbed her by the=
legs and threw her out the door -well, he missed the open door and we had =
a dead chicken on our hands. We had copper reds in the firing and we knew t=
he legend of copper red so wondered if a freshly dead chicken would serve t=
he same purpose, and threw her into the firebox... The feathers virtually v=
aporized before she hit the burning wood; followed by a really amazing sigh=
t of layers just "peeling" off to reveal moist meat underneath which in tur=
n peeled and so on... not a very pretty sight... Anyway the next day when w=
e opened the kiln, lo and behold ALL of our copper reds were a really nice =
Chun blue... -Rimas

Lee Love on mon 20 sep 10


Imagine the glazes if the chicken abuser jumped in himself? The least
he should do is take some anger management classes.

The horticulturalist we get our heirloom tomato plants and fresh
eggs from spent over $3,000.00 to get one of his laying hens' broken
leg pinned at the raptor center. As often happens, she ended up
getting an infection in the other leg and had to be put down. He
cremated her, stopped by during the art crawl to find an urn for her
and her sister that died last year.

You might say, we get "beyond free ranged" eggs from him.

--
=3DA0Lee, a Mashiko potter in Minneapolis
http://mingeisota.blogspot.com/

=3D93Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don't claim them. Feel
the artistry moving through and be silent.=3D94 --Rumi

C Sullivan on tue 21 sep 10


Aw . . . . c'mon Lee
The fello had probably spent hours and hours, perhaps even days, on those
pots and he just meant to usher the mindless but loveable chicken out the
door in a timely fashion. Can he help it if his throwing skills are a wee
bit off base? He may even have thought that the bird would fly, thus
correcting his aim. Bet the fello felt dreadful afterwards, but then drew =
=3D
a
sigh of relief that he hadn't followed his initial desires of going out for
a baseball career.
Chae

On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 6:40 PM, Lee Love wrote:

> Imagine the glazes if the chicken abuser jumped in himself? The least
> he should do is take some anger management classes.
>
> The horticulturalist we get our heirloom tomato plants and fresh
> eggs from spent over $3,000.00 to get one of his laying hens' broken
> leg pinned at the raptor center. As often happens, she ended up
> getting an infection in the other leg and had to be put down. He
> cremated her, stopped by during the art crawl to find an urn for her
> and her sister that died last year.
>
> You might say, we get "beyond free ranged" eggs from him.
>
> --
> Lee, a Mashiko potter in Minneapolis
> http://mingeisota.blogspot.com/
>
> =3D93Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don't claim them. Feel
> the artistry moving through and be silent.=3D94 --Rumi
>

Clyde Tullis on tue 21 sep 10


All potters that have had the copper red bug should read The Cat Who Saw
Red, the fourth book in the Cat Who series of mystery novels by Lilian
Jackson Braun, published in 1986. Probably inspired by this legend.

Lee Love on tue 21 sep 10


In Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 5:13 PM, Randall Moody wr=
=3D
ote:

>
> I did get a kick

You are supposed to. DOH! Would not have been a story if he put
the broken legged chicken in the crock pot.

Some people are not prostitutes for money. My heirloom tomato
and free ranged egg guy certainly doesn't raise chickens for money.
Does he?

--
=3DA0Lee, a Mashiko potter in Minneapolis
http://mingeisota.blogspot.com/

=3D93Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don't claim them. Feel
the artistry moving through and be silent.=3D94 --Rumi

Lee Love on tue 21 sep 10


On Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 5:47 PM, C Sullivan wrote:
> Gosh Lee
> It sounds like both Hamada and your teacher practised the maxim: judge no=
=3D
t,
> lest ye be judged !!!

It would be a mistake to put it this way. They had high standards
for themselves and their students. Many students quit my teacher's
workshop before completing their full studies. And the old
craftsmen were even more demanding.

--
=3DA0Lee, a Mashiko potter in Minneapolis
http://mingeisota.blogspot.com/

=3D93Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don't claim them. Feel
the artistry moving through and be silent.=3D94 --Rumi

C Sullivan on tue 21 sep 10


Gosh Lee
It sounds like both Hamada and your teacher practised the maxim: judge not,
lest ye be judged !!!
Hugs
Chae



On Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 1:00 PM, Lee Love wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 9:47 AM, C Sullivan wrote:
> > Aw . . . . c'mon Lee
>
> Don't "Aw c'mon" me! ;^) Like Hamada said, "The critic has
> Beauty. The craftsman only has his character." This JA's
> unfinished work is too damn
> precious.
>
> I adopted five 2 to 3 week old kittens that my Akita Taiko
> found under an upturned box in the Shrine woods beside our house. We
> rescued a total about about a dozen kittens and one puppy from that
> woods. This kittens lived in my studio for about two months and
> broke several thousand dollars "worth" of pots. I've always had
> studio cats, and you get some breakage for the benefit of being rid of
> poisonous snakes and mice and rats.
>
> There was a young apprentice at my teacher's studio
> who was a National Living Treasure. An older wiser apprentice
> couldn't get a large blue platter, that goes for "$30,000.00", out of
> the salt chamber. The younger apprentice went in, and pulled it off
> the shelf and hit the platter on the ceiling of the kiln, breaking it.
> He could have killed himself right then and there. He went to my
> teacher, threw himself prone at my teachers feet and said he was sorry
> for breaking the blue osara. The apprentice said he was sorry for
> the $30,000.00 breakage. He thought he'd be thrown out of the
> workshop right then and there. My teacher said it wasn't worth
> $30,000.00 until it was sold and paid for. "It's okay. We fired two
> didn't we? We only need one for the show." They young apprentices
> was gratefully flabbergasted.
>
> Because the bisque in the noborigama was so low it was
> very soft. My job was to sponge all the bisque, I remember the
> first time I broke a matcha jawan. for the Yohen chamber. They sold
> for $6,000.00 I thought I would be thrown out, but my teacher simply
> told the senior apprentice to get a new one.
>
> Later, I read a story about when my teacher an apprentice
> for Hamada. The Emperor and Empress of Japan came to visit Hamada
> one day. Everybody was very busy getting things is order for their
> visit. While they were there, my teacher was moving a board of
> finished pots on his shoulder, from the noborigama shed to one of the
> rooms where work was arranged to up coming shows. To his surprise,
> the Emperor and Empress of Japan appeared in his path. He
> automatically did a deep bow in front of them, and all the pots
> tumbled off of the board, on to the grown breaking. Hamada thought
> it was pretty funny. My teacher learned a lesson that day, and has
> passed it on.
>
> --
> Lee, a Mashiko potter in Minneapolis
> http://mingeisota.blogspot.com/
>
> =3D93Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don't claim them. Feel
> the artistry moving through and be silent.=3D94 --Rumi
>

Randall Moody on tue 21 sep 10


On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 4:39 PM, Rimas VisGirda wrote:

> Way back when, H&V Pottery was housed in an old chicken shed. One day
> towards the end of a (wood) firing, a left-over chicken got into the shop=
;
> we could hear her clucking and flapping around. Hotchkiss went into the
> shop, where she had messed up a bunch of wet greenware, got mad, grabbed =
her
> by the legs and threw her out the door -well, he missed the open door and=
we
> had a dead chicken on our hands. We had copper reds in the firing and we
> knew the legend of copper red so wondered if a freshly dead chicken would
> serve the same purpose, and threw her into the firebox... The feathers
> virtually vaporized before she hit the burning wood; followed by a really
> amazing sight of layers just "peeling" off to reveal moist meat underneat=
h
> which in turn peeled and so on... not a very pretty sight... Anyway the n=
ext
> day when we opened the kiln, lo and behold ALL of our copper reds were a
> really nice Chun blue... -Rimas
>

You just used the wrong breed of chicken. I think to get the color you are
looking for it would need to be a Rhode Island or a New Hampshire Red. My
guess is that you used an Orpington or a Plymouth Rock. :)

I did get a kick out of Lee's story of the guy paying 3 grand to attempt to
fix a chicken's leg when you can get one for $5 to $40 depending on the
breed. He could have replaced that one hen with 600. My grandfather the
farmer would have laughed himself silly at that one.

--
Randall in Atlanta
http://wrandallmoody.com

Lee Love on tue 21 sep 10


On Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 9:47 AM, C Sullivan wrote:
> Aw . . . . c'mon Lee

Don't "Aw c'mon" me! ;^) Like Hamada said, "The critic has
Beauty. The craftsman only has his character." This JA's
unfinished work is too damn
precious.

I adopted five 2 to 3 week old kittens that my Akita Taiko
found under an upturned box in the Shrine woods beside our house. We
rescued a total about about a dozen kittens and one puppy from that
woods. This kittens lived in my studio for about two months and
broke several thousand dollars "worth" of pots. I've always had
studio cats, and you get some breakage for the benefit of being rid of
poisonous snakes and mice and rats.

There was a young apprentice at my teacher's studio
who was a National Living Treasure. An older wiser apprentice
couldn't get a large blue platter, that goes for "$30,000.00", out of
the salt chamber. The younger apprentice went in, and pulled it off
the shelf and hit the platter on the ceiling of the kiln, breaking it.
He could have killed himself right then and there. He went to my
teacher, threw himself prone at my teachers feet and said he was sorry
for breaking the blue osara. The apprentice said he was sorry for
the $30,000.00 breakage. He thought he'd be thrown out of the
workshop right then and there. My teacher said it wasn't worth
$30,000.00 until it was sold and paid for. "It's okay. We fired two
didn't we? We only need one for the show." They young apprentices
was gratefully flabbergasted.

Because the bisque in the noborigama was so low it was
very soft. My job was to sponge all the bisque, I remember the
first time I broke a matcha jawan. for the Yohen chamber. They sold
for $6,000.00 I thought I would be thrown out, but my teacher simply
told the senior apprentice to get a new one.

Later, I read a story about when my teacher an apprentice
for Hamada. The Emperor and Empress of Japan came to visit Hamada
one day. Everybody was very busy getting things is order for their
visit. While they were there, my teacher was moving a board of
finished pots on his shoulder, from the noborigama shed to one of the
rooms where work was arranged to up coming shows. To his surprise,
the Emperor and Empress of Japan appeared in his path. He
automatically did a deep bow in front of them, and all the pots
tumbled off of the board, on to the grown breaking. Hamada thought
it was pretty funny. My teacher learned a lesson that day, and has
passed it on.

--
=3DA0Lee, a Mashiko potter in Minneapolis
http://mingeisota.blogspot.com/

=3D93Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don't claim them. Feel
the artistry moving through and be silent.=3D94 --Rumi

Randall Moody on wed 22 sep 10


Certainly not if he is dumb enough to spend 3 grand on a 5 dollar =3D
chicken.
It isn't being a "prostitute" for money to have a modicum of common =3D
sense
about things.=3D20

-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart [mailto:Clayart@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG] On Behalf Of Lee Love
Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2010 11:53 PM
To: Clayart@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Re: copper red legend

In Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 5:13 PM, Randall Moody
wrote:

>
> I did get a kick

You are supposed to. DOH! Would not have been a story if he put
the broken legged chicken in the crock pot.

Some people are not prostitutes for money. My heirloom tomato
and free ranged egg guy certainly doesn't raise chickens for money.
Does he?

--
=3DA0Lee, a Mashiko potter in Minneapolis
http://mingeisota.blogspot.com/

=3D93Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don't claim them. Feel
the artistry moving through and be silent.=3D94 --Rumi