Taja creating porcelain glaze

Spot the difference

2012-02-20T03:20:00.002-08:00

Can you find the difference in this image from the previous image ( Happy Valentines Day!)?
Yes, this new image has a bit of gold on it.
The theme of this years The Devon Guild of Craftsmen Summer Exhibition is `Reaching for Gold`.
I have been thinking how I can use gold on my work since the theme came out. The only way I knew how to apply gold on pots was to use gold enamel. I wanted apply gold on my new work I made early this year. They are sculptural and rather large. I did not want to take any risk of cracks during the enamel firing, so I went on You tube and found a method called gilding. Luckily I knew someone who does gilding in Torquay and contacted him. He was very kind and gave me lots of useful information about gold gilding as well as left over gold leaves to try out. Since then I have been testing gold leaf gilding on my old work to see how they look on my blue porcelain.

Here are a couple of images of test pots. They look good. Now I can not wait to apply gold and platinum gilding on my large sculptural work.

Happy Valentines day!

2012-02-14T01:02:00.001-08:00

I wonder who is getting this present.

Happy Valentines Day!

Funding the Future

2012-01-27T09:28:00.000-08:00

I am participating this event to raise funds for the ceramic centre. You can bid on line.
Please go to their auction site www.fundingthefutureauction.blogspot.com
My work is Lot 64 which is Seiji blue Vase, although it looks very green on the picture.
There are about 200 pots to be auctioned.

Play about

2012-01-13T10:38:00.000-08:00

I really could not bring myself to start makig usual mugs at the beginning of this year. So I decided to make what ever I want to make to open up my energy. They are something you can not use for everyday life. I do not know if they come out of kiln in one piece or not. I do not care. I just have to forget about making money for this once. There are lots more things to come. At least I feel good! It is called pottery therapy.

Test mix from oxidation blue glaze

2012-01-05T10:39:00.000-08:00

Here is an image of a glaze test taken from Phil Lyddon`s oxidation blue glaze (see the previous blog ).
One on the right side tile is his original tile. One large and one small test pieces are my reduction mix.
For this mix I put 1 % of iron oxide instead of blue stain, with reduction firing. The texture came out the same, but the blue tends to be greener, especially where the glaze is thick.It was an interesting trial.

Blue Glaze for Electric Kiln

2011-12-22T07:06:00.000-08:00

A potter I met at Art in Clay Farnham last month sent me his blue glaze sample piece which is very similar to one of my Silvery Seiji glaze. He fires this glaze in his electric kiln ( oxidised atmosphere ).

Here is an image of his sample glaze piece on top of my dish which has my silvery Seiji glaze. His sample blue has much stronger blue, but the surface texture is very similar. His name is Phil Lyddon. www.phillyddon.co.uk.
He uses porcelain clay as well as stoneware.

He gave me the recipe of this glaze :
Potash Feldspar 53, Whiting 6.5,
BaCo3 13, Quartz 18.5, China Clay 4.5,Ball Clay 4.5 and Sky blue glaze stain 0.5% 1265C in electric kiln. Ask him for more details.

I made up a test glaze based on his blue glaze recipe. I used H.V.A.R .Ball clay and 1% iron oxidise.
I am firing this glaze at the moment in reduction atmosphere. I will put the result on my blog soon.

Green Hill Community Resource Centre

2011-12-10T09:14:00.001-08:00

The old Moretonhampstead Primary School, where my three children went, now has been converted to Green Hill Community Resource Centre. There was an openning ceremony at mid-day today.
The centre has very posh large exhibition space and six workshop rooms upstairs as well as rooms for youth club and a lift! They kindly displayed my small mugs in a cabinet behind the reception desk. If you know the old school building, it is a big change. I can not wait to see how it is going to be used in the future.

Oven proof?

2011-12-05T01:10:00.001-08:00

Christmas Show 2011 went well. Everyone loved the free gift card offer. Some suggested to make them into postcards. I will certainly consider it.
Well, one customer saw my fish dish last year which was too small for what he wanted to do. So I made a large one for him this year. He loved it and started explaining how he was going to cook a whole fish in this dish ` I wrap a whole fish in wet newspaper, so the paper sticks tightly on the fish and cook it in the oven Gas Mark 6 for 30 minutes or till the paper turns brown and dry. When you peel the paper, the skin of the fish comes with it. It is easy and delicious.` I then realised he was going to put this large porcelain dish into an oven. I naturally thought porcelain pots are not oven proof - but I had never tested myself if my porcelain pots are oven proof or not. So I said ` I have another fish dish which is a seconds because of uneven glaze. I will put this in my oven and cook some apples with it and see what happens.` So he went to have coffee in the town with his partner. I put three apples with a bit of water in this large second fish dish and tried to put it in my oven. A surprise! The dish was much too long for my oven. So I quickly changed it to a smaller fish dish for the testing. Well, the kitchen started to smell with lovely cooked apples after while. After 30minutes, I opened the oven and pulled the dish with completely melted apples. The result - It came out of the oven cracked in half! So my porcelain pots are not oven proof. He came back and saw the result. He felt sorry for the whole thing. I mentioned about the size of the dish which was too big for my oven. He realised that it could not fit in his oven either. So I could have sold this dish without worrying if it is oven proof or not in the end!

Hand Drawn Gift Card

2011-11-28T08:15:00.001-08:00

Here is an image of my Hand Drawn Gift Card (see previous blog ). I used hand made Japanese business card paper which I bought five years ago in Kyoto. My wife thought that bees design were of chinese lanterns. A card of two bees at the top right corner in this image is favoured by my daughter Hana www.stylecovered.com

Christmas Show 2011

2011-11-25T09:09:00.001-08:00

I am holding a Christmas Show next weekend. Any purchase made then will have 10% discount and a hand drawn gift card. This is just to say thank you for supporting me. The details :

Saturday 3rd Dec. 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Sunday 4th Dec. 11:00 am - 4:00 pm

@ Cross Tree Pottery

Moretonhampstead TQ13 8NL

I hope you can come!

Report, Art in Clay Farnham

2011-11-21T07:26:00.001-08:00

Stand 2m x 3m

Well, the sales was not as good as I had hoped for. But because this is the first one I`ve done in Farnham, I asked a few potters around me how they did. they were saying the same thing ` It was a worst sales this year` ` This is the least good Art in Clay Farnham I`ve done` so on. Anyway it was not disastrous. The demonstration went well. The room was packed. I demonstrated how to make cereal bowl , mug, medium bowl. It took one hour to do it, so I could not show how to make large fish dish. It was quite interesting that many of the audience thought the way I produce a clay coil using my hands fascinating. Because for me, it is nothing special. I will upload a video about how to make a clay coil here sometime in the future. A lady came up to me the following day to show me an image of her cereal bowl made on that night using my method she learnt from my demo. It was very nice of her.

Demonstration at Art in Clay

2011-11-17T11:04:00.001-08:00

Large Fish Dish

Medium Bow

Here are a couple of images of what I am making at the demonstration at Art in Clay Farnham.
I will be demonstrating Saturday lunch time-12:00 o`clock.

Art in Clay Farnham

2011-11-09T23:27:00.001-08:00

I am doing Art in Clay Farnham www.artinclay.co.uk next weekend. I can send ` Two for One e-voucher` you can print out for this event, if you would like to come. Just send me your e-mail address to hitaja@hotmail.com.

After Oxford Ceramic Fair 2011

2011-11-01T12:18:00.000-07:00

I did Oxford Ceramic Fair last weekend. The sales was as good as the last year. On Sunday afternoon, vital spot lights went off along our side of the hall. It was funny that the sales of my pots suddenly stopped. In fact my pots looked rather grey rather than lovely blue. It showed how important the lighting was for my pots.
I asked my daughter who came with us to Oxford to take picture of my latest vase. Here is the image she took with her new mobile just outside of the hall.

New Brooches

2011-09-15T02:12:00.000-07:00

I made these brooches at Brooch workshop and Demo at The Devon Guild of Craftsmen in August. Because I had lots of time (all day). I coulds expand my repartoire. They look rather ones I used to make with white earthenware. It was fun to do things like that for a change. They will be on show next week at Ceramic in the City www.geffrye-museum.org.uk in London.

Windy Glaze Firing

2011-09-12T11:21:00.000-07:00

I had a glaze firing a couple days ago. The weather focus said that it would be gale following day. So I started firing at 6:30am in order to finish early and started reducing around 1:00pm. The wind got stronger and stronger toward the evening. I can normally finish firing by 10:00pm. But Cone 6 (1200C) was still standing very straight around that time. So I opened the damper a little bit more in order to hurry the firing and little bit more after another hour and bit more after another hour. I know then there would be less reduction effect in some part of the kiln, especially at the bottom near the flue inlets. By the time cone 6 was bent the damper was open 2cm more than usual. In the end it was 2:30am when I finished the firing. So here are a couple of images of the pots with part oxidized Seiji glaze. In fact, some pots look very interesting with this effect.

Latest Seiji Glaze

2011-08-10T11:18:00.000-07:00

Seiji A (Grass)

Seiji B (Bee)

Here are a couple of the latest Seiji glazes I have been using. Seiji B is slightly different from Seiji A in order to reduce crazes. They both have shiny, smooth and rich surface texture with nice blue. They were fired at the temperature of 1250c ( Cone 8 softens ). I start reducing ( fairly heavy ) at 950c and stop heavy reduction at 1220c ( Cone 6 bent properly and Cone 7 soften ). After that, I open damper of the chimney slightly to bring little more oxygen into the kiln untill Cone7 bent and Cone 8 becomes soft. Glaze A is a lovely Seiji glaze, but occasionally a few crazes occur - So not so good for large flat work. Here are recipes :
Seiji A : Potash Feldspar 40, Flint 30, China Clay 5, BaCO3 25, Fe2O3 1, ZnO 2, SnO2 1
Seiji B : Potash Feldspar 35, Flint 30, China Clay 5, Molocite #200 5, BaCO3 25, Fe2O3 1, ZnO 2, SnO2 1

The Devon Guild of Craftsme Summer Exhibition

2011-07-06T10:26:00.000-07:00


my silvery blue porcelain platter

The Devon Guild of Craftsmen Summer Exhibition 2011 www.crafts.org.uk started last week end. It has been 25years since the Guild moved here permanently. The theme for this year`s exhibition is `Silver Thread`. I was one of the selection member for the show. It took all day to go through lots of member`s works. We were all exhausted by the end. We were very strict about the theme- some works were rejected because of that. I was glad when my work was accepted - I had to go out when the other selection members were talking about my work. My statement for this platter was : Ever since I heard that the 2011 Summer Exhibition was to celebrate 25years of the Devon Guild, I decided to create silvery Seiji (blue) glaze for my porcelain tableware. In the last firing, one of my large platters finally came out of kiln just I wanted. It is blue, but a thin part of the thread slip decoration has a silvery blue effect. I am proud to present this platter for a special occasion. I will put the recipe for this glaze next time. Two vases you can see above my platter are made by Philippa de Burlet who works with porcelain. She used platinum luster on porcelain to get some silver lines.

Result from Bovey Tracey Crafts Fair 2011

2011-06-13T01:04:00.000-07:00

It was hard work selling pots at Bovey Tracey Crafts Fair, especially I was glazing, firing and sorting till the last minutes. It always will be. A good thing is the sales was 25% up from the last year`s event despite a bad weather on Sunday and closed earlier than its plan.I felt more confident and relaxed in selling my porcelain tableware this year. The quality of the craft work in this show was high again I thought. I am writing down how to sell at fairs I found from my experience. This is to remind me for another time.
1) The display should have impact. `Wow` efect
2) Never sit down, eat and drink at the stand
3) Greet casually with customers
4) If you are bored, move your body.
eg. clean the display, move around the pots
5) Try potencial customers to feel the work.
6) and explain how my pots are made and why they are so good to use.
eg. `Do feel them. Because I use seven different glazes, each one feels different to touch and shade of blues are pale to deep.`and explain where the blue come from - glaze materials and firing process. `Although they look fragile, in fact they are so durable. We use reject cereal bowls every morning for over a year now but they are still intact except for cracks they had when it came out of kiln and they went dish washer many times.` and stack them up casually in a pile. so on.
7) Smile all the time! - ( I know it is hard )
I have to write this down and stick it in front of my work bench.

I`ve almost sold out Jugs, Vases and Cereal Bowls. I am looking forwards to going back to work shop with Radio 2.

The Contemporary Crafts Fair 2011

2011-06-02T07:05:00.000-07:00

An image of pots just been glazed. They are all for The Contemporary Crafts Fair 2011. www.craftsatboveytracey.co.uk I have another loads in the kiln to be glazed. My stand number for this fair is A19. Most of the pots are with new Seiji glazes. If you are around in Devon, please visit the Fair.
The details are below.

Show Case Exhibition at Devon Guild of Craftsmen

2011-04-01T11:56:00.000-07:00

Show Case Exhibition at Devon Guild of Craftsmen open tomorrow. It is a small room next to the shop area. Although small it has nice atmosphere. I wanted show 50 cereal bowls on one table, but the area was too small for that. I could only managed 21,but still it looks impressive. Wall panels I made for this exhibition look great against white wall. the show will be on till the end of April.

Test Firing.

2011-03-06T03:30:00.000-08:00

I tried this glaze firing according to the book I was reading. Started reducing at 950c and finished 1250c, and soaking till cone7 gone at 1240c. It finished much earlier than normal. I was bit disappointed by the result. It looked bit under fired, especially the test glazes with more silica content (more than 30%). It is true the article in the book which said that more silica in glaze brings the firing temperature up. I have to remember that. I have been making more cereal bowls for glaze tests. I want to make 100 cereal bowls for my exhibition at the wheel room at Devon Guild in April.

Here is an image of how I fire shallow bowls. I have to make a support around it for each one so that the shape stays bowl shape.

After Japan

2011-02-26T06:30:00.000-08:00

Since I came back from Japan with four Japanese glaze books, I have been reading about the basics of glaze. Jet lag forced me to wake up early luckily. It is very good for me to learn about the pottery glazes, since I did not go to any school or collage to learn about the pottery. Meanwhile I was looking at the result from glaze firing I did before I went to Japan. A few things I noticed from comparing glaze tests are :

1) More BaCO3 - More Blue
2) More Quartz - Less Crazing
3) More Potash Feldspar - More Crazing
4) More ZnO/SnO - Glaze run from pots
5) Whiting - Greener colour

But when I was reading Japanese glaze books, I found some articles contradicting my observations. I have to keep on reading. It is good to know the starting point for the glaze mixing, which is the stoneware and porcelain glazes are made of melted Feldspar (potash/soda) and you add some materials such as calcium/ barium/ magnesium to help Feldspar to melt. You need some china clay for banding and silica to give some body. The basic recipe is
PotashFeldspar : 40
Silica : 35 (more for higher melting point)
Calcium carbonate : 15 (more for lowering melting point)
China clay : 10

Tiles

2011-01-30T02:51:00.000-08:00

Porcelain tiles for a wash basin ordered by a client. They did not warp so much despite of the thickness after firing. I pressed them hard after being fairly dry at the end of the drying process.

A Happy New Year !

2011-01-04T08:08:00.000-08:00

Image sent by Japanese client who did this flower arrangement in my vase.
More glaze tests again this year and trying to get red under glaze colour for reduction firings.

New cup & saucers

2010-12-20T05:34:00.000-08:00

New cup & saucers. The cup of its body was thrown on the wheel as a cylinder shape and alter the shape to make it curvy towards the base as I normally do with my slab built mugs after cutting off its thrown base. The good thing about this method is that you can get elegant edge, yet each cup has unique shape

Brooch with a model

2010-12-12T10:42:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of images - brooches with models. If you want to see more brooches, go to the previous blog.

Porcelain Brooches

2010-12-12T10:33:00.000-08:00

Here are images of brooches. Please click the image to go to the album.

Brooches

2010-12-06T01:02:00.000-08:00

They `ve just come out of kiln. I will upload images with a model soon.

Frozen

2010-12-02T00:39:00.000-08:00

It has been so cold here. I was glazing pots yesterday using a sprayer and a spray booth in my kiln shed which has a tin roof and 3 walls. As I sprayed glaze on bisc pots, thick glaze started freezing on a plastic stand. It made lovely patterns.

My Video

2010-11-22T11:14:00.000-08:00

Here is a video about myself and my porcelain tableware filmed and edited by a local film maker John M www.colourrush.co.uk
Although it is a short film, but very informative with good image. I am very pleased with it.

Brooch

2010-11-07T10:39:00.000-08:00

I was not short listed for this public art competition mentioned before. I suppose ceramics in a public park do not mix.
Anyway I will start making large work this winter. For next few weeks, I will be busy getting ready for my Christmas show happening at my show room in December. The invitations go to all the people who bought my pots at Bovey Tracy Craft Fair last June. If you would like an invitation, send me your e-mail address. I am showing some brooches ( you can see the image here) then.

Oxford Ceramic Fair Weekend

2010-11-01T09:41:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple images from Oxford Ceramic Fair. It was a good show with quite a few customers. I took a kind of commission to make cups & saucers in particular shape and size, which I am looking forwards to making them. I converted the original free standing stand to a stand to rest on a table provided.

Oxford Ceramic Fair

2010-10-28T13:02:00.000-07:00

In image from the last firing 2 days ago. Somehow the firing took 18hours, which was longer than usual. It was a very windy day and night. But the result was good.

A couple of large vases in the middle are new. I was so pleased they came out without any cracks. I am showing them at Oxford Creamic Fair www.oxfordsc.co.uk this weekend.

Leechwell Garden Public Art Competition

2010-10-22T07:59:00.000-07:00

Here is a copy of proposal for public art commission for The Public Garden in Totnes, that I am applying for.

Letter of Interest

Leechwell Garden Public Art Competition

Why I want to win this competition.

When I heard about this competition, my memory from 30 years ago came back to me. I had just arrived in England from my native country Japan to study oil painting. Totnes was the first place I stayed. I stayed with my friend who had a house in Moorashes. During the time I was there, I painted many lovely places and corners in Totnes, including a field where this Leechwell Garden exists now. When I walked through between the high walls of Leechwell lane, I had a scary feeling that I might meet the people who suffered from leprosy in the past walking along to get to and from the leech well.

I moved away from Totnes at the time when all the development started. And now every time I visit the town, I see more houses and car parks. I feel a bit sad to see the mysterious places I painted disappearing.

When I went to see this Leechwell Garden 10 days ago, I was surprised to see a bit of old Totnes there. I thought the garden was well planned, it gave me a warm feeling of care and love.

I had a strong urge to contribute to this garden and enhance the feeling of serenity and mystery.

What I want to do.

I have been working with clay for 25years as a ceramicist creating mainly sculptural work. I have taken a number of public commissions as well as private ones in that time. For example I created an outdoor ceramic mural called `Dartmoor Landscape` for Newton Abbot multi storey car park commissioned by Teignbridge D.C. In year 200, I was chosen to be one of `The Year of Artists` by South West Arts and created large scale garden sculpture in the ground of Castle Drago using carved red bricks. Recently I created a ceramic canopy for a garden of a nursing home in mid Devon. These are just a few example of the projects I undertook over the years. I enclose some images of these works.

3 years ago I started experimenting with porcelain clay inspired by large porcelain tiles created by a Japanese potter that cover one side of an entire wall in a new airport in Japan. Till I saw them I did not realize someone could make large porcelain pieces without them warping or cracking. The pale blue of porcelain glaze used on the tiles was transparent yet deep. It reminded me of water or sky. I fell in love with the colour and quality of the glaze.

At the beginning of this year, I was given a grant to develop my own porcelain blue glaze from Arts Council England. I successfully developed several blue porcelain glazes by the end of spring. I have been writing about the process of creating these glazes, which you can see on my blog site: www.tajaporcelain.com.

Since then I have been producing hand built porcelain tableware such as mugs, bowls and vases with these glazes. Now I feel ready to create some large porcelain work and this project would be the perfect starting point for me.

I would like to create four large porcelain sculptural pieces, each one with a different pale blue glaze. These pieces can be used as seats as well, so people can sit on them. Water like the quality of these blue glazes, compliments the garden and bring the focal point to the garden.

What they are.

Each one of these porcelain pieces has a simple sphere shapes, 40-50cm in height. The top of the sphere caves in with a hole. If you imagine a large apple, that is the shape. Its wall will be thick in order to make it durable and heavy. Each one would be secured by an iron rod into the ground. I have made quite a few stoneware garden sculpture using this shape, so I do not have a problem in executing this shape. I enclose images of the unfired maquettes and some sketches of one of the pieces.

In November I will be able to show these finished maquettes which have been fired and glazes in order for you to see and feel the quality of the material and shapes.

Here are some of images of unfired maquettes I attached with the proposal.

Pretty Lady

2010-10-14T01:25:00.000-07:00

Here is a lovely rose from our garden on our dining table. It is called Pretty Lady. I have been writing a proposal for Leechwell Garden Public Art Competition in Totnes. I am thinking of making a range of porcelain sculpture that you can sit on as stools. I never made large work using porcelain, so it is a challenge for me. But I feel quite excited.

Ceramic Wall Hangings

2010-10-10T02:01:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of images of ceramic wall hangings I installed yesterday. They are created by children ( reception and year3) from St Josegh`s Catholic Primary School in Exmouth. I did ceramic workshop to create them in June, using white earthenware paper clay with colored slips. Because of Summer holiday and my ceramic fairs, it took so long to install them at school. They look very nice. The theme was the sea.

Ikebana Vases

2010-10-04T11:33:00.000-07:00

I have been making large vases for Ikebana (Japanese Flower Arranging) inspired by an order I had a few weeks back and enjoying it. They are thrown in sections while the clay is still wet because my wheel is not powerful enough to throw large amount of clay. If I try to throw 2kg of clay, it simply stops. When I first started making pots 30years ago, a wheel I had was Korean kick wheel which had no momentum. So I am used to throw large pots in sections. A vase is still evenly wet when it is made so I can manipulate the shape with my finger.

Scotland

2010-09-30T09:07:00.000-07:00

We`ve just got back from Scotland where my daughter goes to University. We did quite a bit of walking on Scottish mountains. The weather was perfect for a few days. The mountains were just as imagined - awesome!
Now I have to work hard towards Oxford Ceramic Fair ( www.oxfordsc.co.uk ) , happening at the end of October.

Ceramics in the City 2010

2010-09-21T00:33:00.000-07:00

Here are some images from Ceramics in the City at Geffrye museum in London. There are two rooms and a couple of spaces in corridors. There were not as many visitors around as I expected. For example it was only handful visitors on all day Friday. I took these pictures then. The sales was not that good. I do not know if anyone did well. One potter came to take pictures of my stand she was very impressed by, at the end of the show.

New design

2010-09-08T09:14:00.000-07:00

I have just finished making pots for my next exhibition `Ceramic in the City `www.geffrye-museum.org.uk
It happens next weekend in London and the admission is free. Everyone welcome!
Here is an image of new decoration on my vase. I spread very wet porcelain slip on the vase with a soft kidney rubber. The glaze I used on this vase is my latest seiji blue.
Name : 54H
55 x Potash Feldspar, 25 x Quartz, 15 x BaCO3, 3 x ZnO, 2 x SnO2, 1 x Fe2O3

Something different

2010-09-04T11:07:00.000-07:00

Here is something different. I had an order for a vase for Ikebana ( Japanese flower arrange). So I made this pot on a wheel. It was my first time throwing a porcelain pot on the wheel. It had to be 28cm high - that meant a thrown pot had to be 33cms in height. So I threw it in sections. Surprise surprise - I really enjoyed it!
A client wanted it be pale grayish green. So I dug out my old glaze tests to much the colour and chose this recipe.
Name : T10
Potash Feldspar x 69, Quartz x 12, SrCO3 x 7, Whiting x 8, SnO x 2, ZnO x 2, FeO x 2

Baby Teapots

2010-08-26T09:37:00.000-07:00

Here is an image of new baby teapots drying slowly. I think it holds bit more than one large cup. I started making them when I did the demonstration at the Devon Guild of Craftsmen last week ( see below ). Otherwise I`ve been busy making an order I took at Hatfeild.

Demonstration @ Devon Guild

2010-08-21T10:49:00.000-07:00

Every year in August, The Devon Guild of Craftsmen organizes Saturdays crafts demonstrations as a part of educational events. It was my turn today. I demonstrated how to make a body of new small teapot for one cup in the morning and decorated some cereal bowls using inlay lines in the afternoon. A quite few people stopped and watched me making and asking me some questions. I was busy all day. I even sold some works!

Making ceramic molds

2010-08-16T13:12:00.000-07:00

First day back in my workshop after Art in Clay, Hatfield. I started off my day with making several ceramic molds for new cups ( for cup& saucer) and large bowl shape. Here is a picture of them drying in my kiln shed. I wrote down how I made them below.

How I make ceramic mold

2010-08-16T11:53:00.000-07:00

This is how I make a ceramic mold. This mold is for a cup my client has commissioned. 1 ) I make a ball with newspaper and press it down on a throwing board.
2 ) Cover this newspaper ball with clay. The clay has to be at least 2 cm thick. I use Earthstone hand building clay .
3 ) Throw this on a wheel to make it nice and even.
I dry it and fire it in the kiln - temperature 1000c, before I use it as a mold

(1) Newspaper Ball

(2) Cover it with thick clay

(3) Throw it on a wheel

A bottom view after being cut off from the board

Account

2010-08-13T01:31:00.000-07:00

I was busy doing my business account for the last couple of days. I have finished `Hooray!`
We are off to Sandy Mouth Bay in north Cornwall today with friends. So I will start working from the next week, working on an order and a commission for new cup & saucer to start with.

Art in Clay - Hatfield

2010-08-09T05:55:00.000-07:00

Here are some images of this ceramic fair. There are so many potters exhibiting. I could not even visit all of them properly. Well, the sales was not as good as I expected although I can still put some profit in the bank to keep them happy. Maybe because of the number of potters, the people who come here just visit and spend money on potters they know or seen them before. In fact a quite few people just passed in front of my stand and even did not look at the pots. Some people said ` This is beautiful. You must be the first time here? I have not seen you before.`, but not quite ready to buy.

My stand looked good with hand made lighting system. I forgot bring my name panel, so I had to make one before the show using a brush and ink I bought at a local superstore 9:00 in the evening.

Talk and Demo at Art in Clay

2010-08-09T02:47:00.000-07:00

Here are some images of my talk about slab built porcelain tableware at Art in Clay, Hatfield. I am showing some of my glaze tests here.

and talking about why and how I made these glazes

and demonstrating how I make a large indivisual bowl using a plastic kitchen bowl covered with stretchy material.

We are off!

2010-08-05T01:48:00.000-07:00

Here are some images of pots from the latest firing for Hatfield Ceramic Fair. The firing process was excellent! New glaze came out nicely. But lots of cracks in large items such as teapots, new vases. I think I pushed too hard to dry them quickly. Never again! We are leaving now.

The last day

2010-08-04T00:20:00.000-07:00

Here is an image of a large plate from the first glaze firing. Today is the last day before going up to London for The Art in Clay Hatfield. I have to take my own lighting as well as display stands this time. It took quite while to come up with the design, in fact the idea came to my mind 3:00 in the morning while I was asleep. I had trouble going back to sleep after that. I will upload the image soon. I finished the second glaze firing last night and waiting for cooling down today. I will open the kiln tomorrow and pack them and hit the road. I hope there will not be so many seconds! I have to go and finish off some pots (tea pot and mugs) to use for my demonstration I am doing on Saturday afternoon at the fair.

Done!

2010-07-30T00:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I finished all the pots I could manage to make this week ( Mon pm, Tues, Wed, Thurs am). They are 15 coffee mugs, 10 tea mugs, 16 small bowls and 4 cereal bowls. I am firing them (biscuit) on Sunday, so trying to dry them quickly - which is fatal in porcelain. I had to mend a large crack appeared in a small bowl this morning and hoping there are no more cracks. In fact I am firing (glaze) today with pots I made last week. So, no more making before Hatfield! I can have some free time today. Maybe going out for lunch or tea!

Half way

2010-07-25T10:03:00.000-07:00

It has been almost a week since I started making pots again, after our holiday. Having said that it was only five days in my workshop making pots. In those days I made 16 cereal bowls, 4 med individual dishes, 1 large dish, 4 small teapots and 4 new vases - about £1000- retail price worth of pots, that is if they all come out in good shape. I have one more week of making of pots before Hatfield ceramic fair www.artinclay.co.uk
I feel a bit stressed, because I do not have enough time. I feel I have to make lots more pots - small bowls, mugs, medium dishes and some more cereal bowls. Help!

School Project

2010-07-18T12:13:00.000-07:00

I have been busy since I came back from holiday. I went to do pottery workshop at Exeter hospital school for 2days with my wheel. Yesterday I went to install ceramic mural created by children I worked with before I went to holiday, from a small primary school near Okehampton. It is a head teacher`s leaving present to the school helped by Big Hand and Little Hand project of the Devon Guild of Craftsmen www.crafts.org.uk. All the 60 or so children participated it. It is looking good! Now long at last I can start making porcelain pots for the next ceramic fair at Hatfield. I would like to do more glaze tests for Chun glaze too. I am looking forward to going back to my workshop.

Holiday 2010

2010-07-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

We`ve just come back from our walking holiday. We only used trains and boats to get there all the way from Devon UK. Can you guess where it is? Here are three more images below.

A view of a town where we stayed

2010-07-12T06:55:00.000-07:00

On a boat

2010-07-12T06:53:00.000-07:00

Water front under the evening light

2010-07-12T06:51:00.000-07:00

Devon Guild Summer Exhibition

2010-06-30T09:09:00.000-07:00

Devon Guild Summer Exhibition www.crafts.org.uk is approaching. It is a shame we will not be here for the opening since we are on holiday!

A Large Bowl for Summer Exhibition

2010-06-30T09:05:00.000-07:00

I am showing this slab built large porcelain bowl for the summer exhibition this year. I hope I can sell it!

Harvest

2010-06-24T10:50:00.000-07:00

First harvest of strawberries in my Seiji bowl. I will be busy picking strawberries every morning from now on. It was a good year for strawberries last year too. Juliet froze them and made strawberry ice water which was very refreshing. I hope we can have it again this year!

Art in Clay Hatfield

2010-06-21T11:35:00.000-07:00

After a successful Bovey Tracy Craft Fair, I am exhibiting at Art in Clay Hatfield (north of London). Here is some details and a map below how to get there. I have a couple of complimentary tickets which allows two people to get in free. If you would like one, please send me an e-mail ( hitaja@hotmail.com ). I will put you into competition.

Art in Clay Hatfield (Map)

2010-06-21T11:22:00.000-07:00

Pottery workshop

2010-06-18T02:13:00.000-07:00

I did 2 days pottery workshop at primary school in Exmouth working with 30children from reception class and 28 children from Year3. They made ceramic wall hangings like the one above (which was made by students from a college in Plymouth 2 years ago.) The weather was hot, so it was a hard work specially in the afternoon. I have not fully recovered from the craft fair either.

The end of the craft fair 1

2010-06-14T01:59:00.000-07:00

Here are some more images from the Craft fair. It was a successful event in sales and how well people liked my new porcelain tableware. Quite a lot of people mentioned about my previous work saying `I have several of your work at home, boats, mermaid and nude figures. But I like your new work too.` and some even bought mugs or bowls. Now I have a bit of rest before the next event Art in Clay in Hatfield near London.

The end of the craft fair 2

2010-06-14T01:50:00.000-07:00

Here is a world famous potter Clive Bowen demonstrating in front of his stand. Without him and his pots, I would not have started my pottery making 27years ago, when I was studying fine art.

The end of the craft fair 3

2010-06-14T01:49:00.000-07:00

This is a small dish I bought at this craft fair. It is made by Jane Bowen, a daughter in law of Clive Bowen I mentioned above. Funny, although I use porcelain now, I really love red earthenware which I started off my pottery 27years ago. I love the feeling of spontaneity and openness that you can achieve in red earthenware. If I can achieve the same feeling in my porcelain tableware in the future, I shall be very happy.

Second day

2010-06-12T11:03:00.001-07:00

Tiding the display a bit in the morning before a lot of customers flooding in. It has been so hot in the marquee.

Craft fair has started

2010-06-11T23:48:00.000-07:00

Today is the second day of the craft fair. I woke up early to write this blog. An image above was taken just after the opening of the first day yesterday. There were already some customers walking around. The private view went very well, talking people and selling well. My sales assistant - (wife) broke two of small bowls as she was showing them to a customer. Because of porcelain, the cracking noise was very loud and sharp. Apparently one of the potters in the same marquee was just saying to a possible customer ` Do feel free to pick it up!`,then crash came. The customer answered ` I dare not!!` Her sale fell through.

Everything in my old Ford Mondeo

2010-06-11T23:47:00.000-07:00

Everything went into my car and there is still some space left. I was very pleased with my design of the stand.

Space for my stand

2010-06-11T23:42:00.000-07:00

Here is a space for my stand. It measures 2m x 2 m. It is situated at the corner with two sides open.

Ready for Private View

2010-06-11T23:39:00.000-07:00

Two hours later, I am ready for Private View tonight.

On news paper at last!

2010-06-09T02:21:00.000-07:00

Western morning news finally put my article on their news paper. It is quite nice article apart from where I work. I do not work in Chagford. I live and work in Moretonhampstead!
I have been busy with paper work today - wholesale price list, artist statement to give away and price labels. I feel exhausted.

My Stand 1

2010-06-08T12:14:00.000-07:00

One of my blog readers asked me to show my stand for this craft fair in details. I have been making it in my kiln shed and small show room because of the rain started yesterday. You have to be clever to create discreet storage space.

My Stand 2

2010-06-08T12:06:00.000-07:00

Storage space for bowls and paper carrier bags behind wrapping tissues. I thought this was very clever. Original idea was to hang a curtain.

There are lots of shelves inside one of the free standing stand.

Preview 2

2010-06-07T10:13:00.000-07:00

Pentagonal Salad Bowl. I used my Lithium glaze on this bowl. It looks quite striking amongst blue pots. This morning I was trying to finish off my stand. But suddenly rain drops started falling on my newly painted plywood. So I have to bring everything in my small and messy kiln shed. It was like doing yoga, tyring to screw here and there. I was totally exhausted by lunch time. Anyway I think - I have finished my stand. My legs are tired and aching now. I should have a nice hot bath with Japanese bath salt.

Preview 1

2010-06-06T03:27:00.000-07:00

Here is an image of dessert bowls. They are much smaller than cereal bowls. In fact perfect size as a rice bowl too.

Getting ready!

2010-06-05T12:12:00.000-07:00

Since I finished all the firing for the craft fair at Bovey Tracey www.craftsatboveytracey.co.uk. I have been busy getting ready for it. I made a plan for my stand ( A46 in marquee A ), which took all day,( because everything have to be portable - bit like Ikea furniture) and cutting plywood and painting it. Lucky the weather continues to be good so that I can work in my lovely garden.

See through pot

2010-06-03T11:53:00.000-07:00

It was a lovely day today, with blue sky and lots of sunshine! We ( I and my wife ) opened a bottle of wine in our garden in the setting sun. We almost finished the whole bottle in our empty stomachs. So I will make this quick. This is an image of one of the pots from the latest glaze firing. The wave pattern is so thin, you can see through the light under the sun. I will upload more images of the pots I am exhibiting at Bovey Tracey Craft fair at the next week in following few days- it is a kind of preview.

Result

2010-06-01T07:52:00.000-07:00

Here are some images from the last glaze firing. It was a very good Cone 8 reduction firing. I am doing another glaze firing at the moment, mainly firing large dishes. I chose 8 different glazes for mt pots. I describe my comment, name of the glaze and its recipe on each glaze

Vase 1

2010-06-01T07:46:00.001-07:00

Pink tinge comes from Lithium Carbonate. It is a quite interesting matt glaze. It is a mixture of white, pink and grey.
8 : Potash Feldspar 70, Whiting 1, China Clay 8.5, BaCO3 17, Li2 CO3 4

Vase 2

2010-06-01T07:43:00.001-07:00

This is a white glaze. It has very slight blue tinge but shiny and clear. Very fine craze.
2` : Potash Feldspar 37, Quartz 25, Whiting 20, China Clay 15, BaCO3 3

Vase 3

2010-06-01T07:33:00.001-07:00

This reddish purple comes from tiny bit of Copper Carbonate in the glaze. It is difficult to control the the colour
10 : Potash Feldspar 40, Quartz 25, Whiting 20, Talc 5, China Clay 10, CuCO3 0.5%

Vase 4

2010-06-01T07:29:00.001-07:00

Very reliable pale blue.
U : Potash Feldspar 20, Quartz 20, Wallastonite 30, China Clay 20, BaCO3 10, Red Earthenware Powder Clay 1.5%

Vase 5

2010-06-01T07:24:00.001-07:00

This is a new mix chun glaze. It seemed to be reliable and good transparent blue.
54H : Potash Feldspar 55, Quartz 25, BaCO3 15 Fe2O3 1, ZnO 3, SnO2 2

Vase 6

2010-06-01T07:19:00.001-07:00

This is another white glaze. Very matt almost powdery snow. It may stain, if used for food.
B` : Potash Feldspar 15, Quartz 20, Whiting 27, China Clay 25, BaCO3 3, MgCO3 10

Vase 7

2010-06-01T07:13:00.001-07:00

This blue has very slight green tinge. Oily and shiny glaze.
54 D : Potash Feldspar 50, Quartz 25 Whiting 5, BaCO3 15, Fe2O3 1, ZnO 3, SnO2 2

Vase 8

2010-06-01T07:05:00.001-07:00

Blue of this glaze is the strongest. Although it crazes a lots, it adds the character on the pot.
52A : Potash Feldspar 67, Quartz 11, BaCo3 22, Fe2O3 1 %, ZnO 1 %

Fixed teapot lid!

2010-06-01T07:04:00.000-07:00

Here it is! A replacement lid for this large tea pot was perfect fit. Now I can relax. See my blog ` I broke a tea pot lid! ` on 30th May

Biscuit firing

2010-05-25T02:07:00.000-07:00

An image of a kiln ready for a biscuit firing. These pots are all for Bovey Tracey Crafts Fair. Here is a list of Pots in the kiln.
14 x Large Mugs
14 x Small mugs
15 x Vases
14 x Cereal Bowls
14 x Desert Bowls
1 x Large Dish
4 x Small Tea pots
I will have one more biscuit firing today will be packed with Salad bowls and Dishes

More one off work 1

2010-05-19T07:11:00.000-07:00

Vase for a rose 40cmH

I was asked to show more images of my one off work. So here are three of them. They were all slab built and decorated with inlay technique and finished with burnishing with no glaze.

More one off work 2

2010-05-19T07:04:00.000-07:00

Vaese - Wind 35cmH

More one off work 3

2010-05-19T07:02:00.000-07:00

Bottles 55cmH

New Vases

2010-05-13T11:33:00.000-07:00

I made some cone shaped cylinders today for new vases. Last year I made a few one off vases using inlay decoration and burnishing finish. Because of the time it took, I could not make many. but this time I can use my Seiji glaze to cut the time I need to finish each vese in order to bring down the cost. I will show an image of one off vases I made last year below.

Vases

2010-05-13T11:12:00.000-07:00

Cups for lovers

Mythic Garden Sculpture Exhibition

2010-05-09T01:03:00.001-07:00

We wen to the private view of Mythic Garden Sculpture Exhibition. I am showing a couple of my ceramic sculpture here. I really wanted to show some porcelain sculptures this year, but they did not come out as I hoped for. So I decided to show a couple of stoneware sculptures I made last year instead. I thought there were less works in the garden than usual but it suited more to its atmosphere - mythic. A couple of images of my stoneware ceramic sculptures from the show to follow.......

Cosmos VW

2010-05-09T00:59:00.001-07:00

Cosmos O

2010-05-09T00:57:00.000-07:00

I put these two stoneware sculptures in this year`s exhibition. It is suprising to think I made them only last year. In a way these works were the beginning of my porcelain work. I mentioned why I changed from stoneware to porcelain in the statement for the Art Council grant application. This is a quote from my grant application, " Because of the nature, of being outdoor pieces, the shape of my 3D work became much simpler and less busy. At the beginning of 2008, I tried simple lines inlaid on the surface of a stoneware piece this involves cutting lines with a sharp object on the suface of the white clay and filling the lines with different coloured slips, like deep blue and then scraping the surface of the clay to bring back the sharpness of these lines. I was fascinated and excited by the result. Even thin and simple lines can make such a strong and dramatic effect on a plain surface. It reminded me of Japanese calligraphy that all the children in Japan had to learn at school forty five years ago. I felt, maybe parallel to my age, that the Japanese side of my identity has started coming out in my work. I tried different sizes and thickness of inlaid lines on the surface of this stoneware clay and found that in order to bring a clean and strong impression on the surface of the clay the whiteness and smoothness of the clay surface is crucial. The stoneware clay I was using (Earthstone Handbuilding material) had lots of grogs in and when scraped, many scratch marks appeared. The fired clay colour was buff white almost cream colour. I know porcelain clay was white and smooth. This led me to work with it. I instantly fell in love with the translucent whiteness and smoothness of the porcelain body. It fitted perfectly my simple inlay technique. Another characteristic I soon found was that it is very dense clay, so it remembers the shape before it was shaped. You can stretch it, but after firing it has a tendency to go back to the original shape. When I make a vase using usual hand built tecjnique, the shape quite often does not come out as I expected. Here again it reminded me of having Japanese blood inside me. We, as Japanese, have a culture to admire things incomplete and find beauty in things not perfect as in broken lines, circles and shapes. With these inlaid lines and shapes that I cannot quite control, I do feel I can bring out the Japanese side of myself as a Japanese ceramicist living in the UK." To start with I was creating one off porcelain vases and shapes with inlay decoration and burnishing without any glaze. After while I wanted more people to enjoy my porcelain work, so I decided to create porcelain tableware. That is why I had to develope Seiji - Chun porcelain glaze to suit my hand built porcelain tableware.

Two complimentary tickets

2010-05-06T11:20:00.000-07:00

I have two complimentary tickets to give away for The Contemporary Craft Fair www.craftsatboveytracey.co.uk. I am launching my affordable porcelain tableware at this fair. If you would like to have one of these tickets, please supply your e-mail address to my blog comment section. (I will treat your e-mail address as strictly confidential, not to pass on to anyone or publish anywhere) I will chose two addresses at random and let the winners know on the 1st of June.

Result from the last firing

2010-05-04T10:35:00.000-07:00

Here are some images of my pots from the last glaze firing. It was not as good as the previous one. The glaze of most of the large pots have large crazes. Maybe the temperature was not high enough. Also I found some pin holes on the surface of a large plate tightly packed (there was not much space between the plate and kiln shelf above). I thought that because of reduction firing ( lack of oxygen), the space around the pot was not important. It may need some space to its atmosphere to move round.