Martie (AKA the Kiln Priestess) on tue 23 may 06
A Watkins Workshop;
Can be a great experience. A number of years ago I invited him to
participate in a workshop and large raku exhibition in Hong Kong that I
helped to curate. My huband and I were able to secure a grant for him from
the Hong Kong Arts Development Council that paid for his airfare plus an
honorarium. He and his lovely daughter Tighe also stayed with my husband
and me for a few weeks in an apartment located in the busy tourist
district of Tsim Sha Tsui. The apartment belongs to my husband's sister
and her spouse and they generously offer it to relatives who need a place
to stay when visiting Hong Kong.
James'workshops are full of great information and he is not shy about
sharing all of his special techniques for getting unusual and elegant raku
surfaces. It was really great getting to know him better since his wife,
Sara Waters was one of my professors at Texas Tech during the time when I
was an MFA ceramics student.
I wish that we had some ceramic equipment and a raku kiln at the HKBU
Academy of Visual Arts right now, but it will be a few more months before
the electric kilns come in. I have drawn up the plans for a raku area in
the kiln yard and I am sure that in a semester or two everything will be
in place here. It is all a matter of time.
In the meantime, I have plenty of work to do over the summer which entails
ordering equipment and supplies, and writing syllabi. I also plan to spend
some time in the library researching Chinese kiln god folktales. I have
located a couple of stories that my husband, Kong Ho, has already helped
me to roughly translate from Chinese into English. These little known
myths are a lot of fun, and I hope to someday publish them in a book about
kiln guardians.
Martie
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