Dancing with glazes

 Nothing was as I had thought. A head (I soon discarded whole figures, they were simply too much) became for me an entirely unknown thing, without any secure dimensions. -Alberto Giacometti

Shino is a type glaze that I enjoyed using. It was developed in Japan and was the white glaze to be used their. This Tea bowl was wood fired and you can see the wood ash deposit showing up in the glaze as dark speckles. I was playing around with

To Borkum on our way to Delft?

I had a chance to visit my Oma today. I haven't had as many opportunities to visit my Oma as much as I would like over the past few years. It's always fun to look at pictures and objects she has collected and to hear the stories that surround them. After my Oma and Opa were married they moved from Heidelberg to Borkum shortly before moving to Canada. For fun I have included driving directions to Delft in the Netherlands. If you for want to check out any of their

A blog to follow

I often enjoy this blog.  Today's post is about Pendant TEELICHT an unconventional ceramic tea light.

slipcast.blogspot.com 

Sunday on the Square Art Shows

Today I made my way to my hometown, London Ontario. An artist at the Covent Garden market has organized this event which is in its second season. Here is a shot of my set up early in the day a few weeks ago. It was interesting to sit and consider the responses from people. The event is relatively new and hopefully it will catch on. The weather was warm, breezy and just a few clouds in the sky. It was a fun day meeting many new people. Today was the second time I attended to sell work. I will keep you updated on my next sale.

Another bowl of tea.

"A tea spoon should be made in the way that it does not look beautiful." -Rikyū

The preceding quote clearly expresses the tea ceremony aesthetic. I have had an interest in Zen Buddhism for several years now. It is probably one of the reasons I fell in love with wood-fired ceramics and the tea ceremony. Sen no Rikyū was an influential figure in the development of the tea ceremony. If you have an interest in this subject and or Sen no Rikyū you should read The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura. Rikyū along with Chojiro are responsible for the creation of Raku ceramics. Though I shall write about this later. The Royal Ontario Museum (here is a link to the image collection on the ROM website) is a good place to start to see some of the Ceramics used in the Tea Ceremony. They also have a replica tea room on display which is always fun to go and see. Well now for the pictures here are some more samples of my woodfired work. The second image is a porcelain vase that was soda fired.

More Video and pics from February

Here is another installment form the February wood firing. I would like to post one of Jenny's speeches and some pics of Kass, Jenny and the pots we fired. I'm not sure how but I lost the high res images from the kiln unload.

Mad Potter in action!

 
If the video is still broken Here is the YouTube link
I still have to catch up on posting my work from the last year. Here is some video from our second woodfiring. I had posted a short clip of Kass unloading the first kiln. Well here is a short of clip of Jenny. And here is her blog. http://jennykylemadpotter.blogspot.com/