Lee Love on sat 21 dec 02
----- Original Message -----
From: "mel jacobson"
> `it takes three minutes to make a pot, and
> it takes you a half hour to scrape off some wax`.
>
> `throw it out.`
You can always bisque again and burn the wax off. Or use a torch
or a paint stripping gun, which is pretty fast. I've held wax against a kiln
peephole to burn it off.
At the workshop, we are all used to scraping zogan/inlay, so using a
scraping tool on wax is second nature.
In the last week, I've been making my own work at the workshop.
Sensei told Gordon (a guy from Germany who is studying at the workshop for 6
months) and I to make work to be put in the 3rd chamber of the Noborigama (the
oxidation chamber) for the March firing. I'm mostly going to use Mashiko
kaki and Nuka. I tested my Chun in the 3rd chamber during the November firing
(stuck it in at the last moment.) I was surprised when it came out blue from
the oxidation chamber. And the chamber was fully oxidized too, you could tell
by how the Nuka Sage (green) and how the Kaki turned out. Best I've seen yet.
So I am going to use my Chun on Han Jiki (a mix of half porcelain and half
Mashiko Namitsuchi light colored clay.) It is great clay: tooth of the Nami
and smoothness and whiteness of the porcelain.
Now that I've begun to do my own work again, at the end of a 3 year
apprenticeship, the one change I've really noticed, in addition to my increase
skill, is that I am a much more careful craftsman. I take more time to do
things, to do them right. If anything, I'm going to have to work at "not
being too careful."
--
Lee Love Ikiru@hachiko.com
Mashiko JAPAN
"Really there is no East, no West,
Where then is the South and the North?
Illusion makes the world close in,
Enlightenment opens it on every side."
- Japanese Pilgrim's Verse.
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