John Baymore on mon 21 jun 04
To those following the Kanayama workshop webcam ........ apparently they
are having some difficulties from time to time as this idea is an
experiment at this point. The webcam may be on and off at various times
ove the rest of the month. Today it was back online........ but most of
the day today few of us were in the workshop.
We finished firing the groundhog / anagama at about 9:30 AM today. It was
a three day + firing after a loading session that took from about 9 AM til
midnight..... with as many as five people inside the kiln working and a
support team outside passing in pots and wadding and shells and such.
It was an absolutely beautiful morning here after raining for most of the
firing. I had done a 6 hour shift ... then slept for only 4 hours and then
did a 18 hour shift ending at midnight last night...... so needless to say
I "slept in" this morning. When I left last night we were on day 3 and
were then climbing it up from a 24 hour soak at 1100 C.... heading for 1200
C and Seger cone 10 down and 11 hanging (about Orton Cone 11 with 12
hanging). I got there in time this morning to see the stokeholes being
clayed up.
Yesterday, there actually were three wood kilns firing here at the same
time.... the groundhog/anagama, the large noborigama, and the small
noborigama. Pretty amazing situation for a westerner to
experience......... these are NOT small kilns......but Matsumiya-san says
that having two firing at the same time is just about a regular occurance
here at Kanayama and three does happen occasionally. The big noborigama is
now on chamber three and the small one on chamber one.
Now we are waiting for a typhoon (taifun) to fully arrive here in Tsugaru
Kanayama. There are still two wood kilns firing in the developing
storm....... so it will be interesting to see how this is handled. Also
the kiln we just finished is not all that well protected from typhoon type
weather......so it will be interesting in seeing how that affects the
cooling. We still don't know exactly how big this storm will be. Time
will tell.
It is late evening here now.... and light rain and gusty wind has arrived.
I can smell the kiln's woodsmoke from the large "common room" here where we
have the computers and hold meetings as I am typing this.
All of us are pretty darn beat today. We have all been working hard for a
while...and the firing was long and hot. Mondays are typically our "day
off" .....and we all took that pretty seriously today. The most pottery
related work I did today was to turn over about 6 pieces so that the
bottoms dired . Drank lots of coffee.
We had an "informal" outdoor tea ceremony here today hosted by a group of
the students of a tea school nearby where we had "formal tea" about a week
ago. They used chawan and flower containers made by a number of us and
also Matsumiya-san.... (and a chaire of mine ). Then we went shopping
in town....and visited a small antique store. After dinner..... we all hit
an onsen for a good long hot soak. I feel like a boiled onion.
Tomorrow we will get back to working producing wares and continuing our
evening slide talks. We open the kiln we just fired on the 27th, and do a
critique session that evening. There is a TV documentary being filmed and
the crew will be back here tomorrow to document the evenings slide lecture
(luckily mine ) and then again for the next kiln opening.
Check out the webcam tomorrow to see the large form that Christos (Greece)
threw yesterday between his stoking shifts. Thrown base, then four coils
for coil and throw. Pretty impressive.
I'll add more later when I get a chance. Gotta' head off to bed soon.
ato de (later),
.................john
John Baymore
Tsugaru Kanayama
Goshogawara-shi, Aomori-ken
Japan
John Baymore on mon 21 jun 04
It is about 8:30 in the morning here in Kanayama.......
The taifun has fizzled! We lucked out. The low pressure that was driving
it dissipated and the storm pretty much broke up. By midnight last night
it was raining buckets and there were strong gusty winds..... and we were
forcast to get about 5 inches of rain. But it never really developed. It
is now breezy with fast moving thick high clouds and hot and humid.
As I walked down to get breakfast in the kitchen area this morning..... I
noticed the distinctive smell of the youhen process happening. So I
detoured and went over to one of the kiln sheds. The Kanayama staff were
busy putting charcoal into the chamber. Hot sweaty work on a humid day
like this. They were all drenched in sweat and wrapped up in wet towels to
protect their faces from the radiant heat and sparks.
When I was here in 2002 I learned how they do this process. When I
returned I began using it in my noborigama at home. That was a
little "R+D"........ rip off and duplicate . If you are not familiar
with this process, there are some pictures of a summer workshop group doing
it in my kiln on my website (http://www.JohnBaymore.com). Go to
the "Earth, Water, and Fire" summer workshop page and then at the bottom
there is a link to some pictures of the summer 2002 workshop that shows the
basics of the process.
Speaking of which....... when I last checked at home there are still two
spaces left in this summer's noborigama firing workshop. If you are
interested.... please email me here in Kanayama. This year's registration
has been difficult to administrate..... with me being in Japan.
More info on Kanayama eventually.
best,
...................john
John Baymore
Tsugaru Kanayama
Goshogawara-shi, Aomori-ken
Japan
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