Hank's Trays drying

Hank's Trays drying, originally uploaded by claycraft.

Trays made from slabs and extruded wall/rim shape drying on one of my
10'x4' tables.

Co-op Nuka over Kuro Ame

KCAI Sculpture Department kilns

KCAI Sculpture Department kilns, originally uploaded by claycraft.

KCAI Sculpture Department kilns

KCAI Sculpture Department kilns, originally uploaded by claycraft.

Mingei and the Microwave

Mingei inspired arrtists, (like myself), make work that can go into the microwave,
but some specialty work cannot.

There is nothing inferior about silk or wool just because you can't wash it in the automatic
washer. They need educated care. As do tea bowls.

The whole point of using fine handmade things instead of
factory/industrial made things, is the mindfulness required to use
them. If it weren't for aesthetics, we might as well use plastic.

Tradition and The Modern.

Folkways and modern technology are equally valid.
They have different strengths. The old ways are great for innovation and coming up with new things. Industrial methods are good for repeating these new discoveries. For example, Currie grids are good to discover new glazes. Materials analysis and glaze calculation are good for control.

We have a prejudice toward factory technique and methods, but it
does not invalidate technologies that have been developed over 10s of thousands of years.

Hamada said:

"First, you completely digest the tradition. Then you create something new through your finger tips." Digestion is where you begin.

Once we acknowledge that we are not the pinnacle of knowledge, but are only exactly in the middle of all the knowledge of the past, and all the knowledge that will come in the future, then we can accept all knowldege with humility.

A friend said we should embrace ALL change:

Cancer is the epitome of unrestrained change. So is the damage we have done to our environment. We have depended too heavily on the perspective of "mastery" and not enough on integration, a wholistic view and learning from the environment.

You need a stable foundation to work out from. We have many new expressions of old forms and many new uses of old forms. Exciting things always happen when cultures meet. If one is flexible
enough to learn.

chun blue teapot and cups

chun blue teapot and cups, originally uploaded by claycraft.

The teapot is the original formula with silica supplied by quartz. The
cups are the new formula with silica supplied by RHA.

Re: Hambones Bristol Nuka & Garth Clark Brown, cone 8 electric

Re: Hambones Bristol Nuka & Garth Clark Brown, cone 8 electric, originally uploaded by claycraft.

On 4/12/08, Eric Hansen wrote:
> Hambones Bristol Nuka, cone 8 electric
> 1 Agrilectric MaxFlo Grade 4 (>140 microns) rice hull ash
> 1 North Carolina mixed wood ash, unwashed
> 1 g-200 feldspar
> + 3% bentonite
> + 3% zinc oxide
>
> Garth Clark Brown, cone 8 electric
> 50 North Carolina mixed wood ash, unwashed
> 50 Cedar Heights Red Art Clay
> + 5% Black Iron oxide
>
> I liked the interaction of the 2 glazes. The best example of the nuka
> glaze was over the lowest iron content in the porcelain. In general
> the zinc wasn't a big help, in fact it promotes a sand paper feeling
> texture. I was expecting a matte opaque with crawling, what I got was
> a clear with patches of gloss and matte alternating, pooling glossy in
> the bottom.
>

Re: Hambones Bristol Nuka & Garth Clark Brown, cone 8 electric

Re: Hambones Bristol Nuka & Garth Clark Brown, cone 8 electric, originally uploaded by claycraft.

On 4/12/08, Eric Hansen wrote:
> Hambones Bristol Nuka, cone 8 electric
> 1 Agrilectric MaxFlo Grade 4 (>140 microns) rice hull ash
> 1 North Carolina mixed wood ash, unwashed
> 1 g-200 feldspar
> + 3% bentonite
> + 3% zinc oxide
>
> Garth Clark Brown, cone 8 electric
> 50 North Carolina mixed wood ash, unwashed
> 50 Cedar Heights Red Art Clay
> + 5% Black Iron oxide
>
> I liked the interaction of the 2 glazes. The best example of the nuka
> glaze was over the lowest iron content in the porcelain. In general
> the zinc wasn't a big help, in fact it promotes a sand paper feeling
> texture. I was expecting a matte opaque with crawling, what I got was
> a clear with patches of gloss and matte alternating, pooling glossy in
> the bottom.
>

Re: Hambones Bristol Nuka & Garth Clark Brown, cone 8 electric

Re: Hambones Bristol Nuka & Garth Clark Brown, cone 8 electric, originally uploaded by claycraft.

On 4/12/08, Eric Hansen wrote:
> Hambones Bristol Nuka, cone 8 electric
> 1 Agrilectric MaxFlo Grade 4 (>140 microns) rice hull ash
> 1 North Carolina mixed wood ash, unwashed
> 1 g-200 feldspar
> + 3% bentonite
> + 3% zinc oxide
>
> Garth Clark Brown, cone 8 electric
> 50 North Carolina mixed wood ash, unwashed
> 50 Cedar Heights Red Art Clay
> + 5% Black Iron oxide
>
> I liked the interaction of the 2 glazes. The best example of the nuka
> glaze was over the lowest iron content in the porcelain. In general
> the zinc wasn't a big help, in fact it promotes a sand paper feeling
> texture. I was expecting a matte opaque with crawling, what I got was
> a clear with patches of gloss and matte alternating, pooling glossy in
> the bottom.
>

Re: Hambones Bristol Nuka & Garth Clark Brown, cone 8 electric

Re: Hambones Bristol Nuka & Garth Clark Brown, cone 8 electric, originally uploaded by claycraft.

On 4/12/08, Eric Hansen wrote:
> Hambones Bristol Nuka, cone 8 electric
> 1 Agrilectric MaxFlo Grade 4 (>140 microns) rice hull ash
> 1 North Carolina mixed wood ash, unwashed
> 1 g-200 feldspar
> + 3% bentonite
> + 3% zinc oxide
>
> Garth Clark Brown, cone 8 electric
> 50 North Carolina mixed wood ash, unwashed
> 50 Cedar Heights Red Art Clay
> + 5% Black Iron oxide
>
> I liked the interaction of the 2 glazes. The best example of the nuka
> glaze was over the lowest iron content in the porcelain. In general
> the zinc wasn't a big help, in fact it promotes a sand paper feeling
> texture. I was expecting a matte opaque with crawling, what I got was
> a clear with patches of gloss and matte alternating, pooling glossy in
> the bottom.
>

Re: Hambones Bristol Nuka & Garth Clark Brown, cone 8 electric

Re: Hambones Bristol Nuka & Garth Clark Brown, cone 8 electric, originally uploaded by claycraft.

On 4/12/08, Eric Hansen wrote:
> Hambones Bristol Nuka, cone 8 electric
> 1 Agrilectric MaxFlo Grade 4 (>140 microns) rice hull ash
> 1 North Carolina mixed wood ash, unwashed
> 1 g-200 feldspar
> + 3% bentonite
> + 3% zinc oxide
>
> Garth Clark Brown, cone 8 electric
> 50 North Carolina mixed wood ash, unwashed
> 50 Cedar Heights Red Art Clay
> + 5% Black Iron oxide
>
> I liked the interaction of the 2 glazes. The best example of the nuka
> glaze was over the lowest iron content in the porcelain. In general
> the zinc wasn't a big help, in fact it promotes a sand paper feeling
> texture. I was expecting a matte opaque with crawling, what I got was
> a clear with patches of gloss and matte alternating, pooling glossy in
> the bottom.
>

Re: Hambones Bristol Nuka & Garth Clark Brown, cone 8 electric

Re: Hambones Bristol Nuka & Garth Clark Brown, cone 8 electric, originally uploaded by claycraft.

Song Of Work

n 1947, five young men built a communal pottery named Shussai-Gama, influenced by William Morris and Mingei. They recited this Kawaii poem together at the beginning of each day:

Song Of Work

To work is to know work
To work each day is healthy
There is nothing work can't do Anything can be work
Even in tasks that one dislikes is found work

There is nothing that can't be advanced upon
You will be suprised at the extent its power gives
There is nothing that work doesn't know
It will teach you anything you ask
It will fulfill anything you wish for
The things that work likes best are
To do with the things that require suffering
And suffering will be defeated by work
So then-- for all of us, Lets rejoice.

--Kanjiro Kawaii

Two bowls ......

Two bowls ......, originally uploaded by claycraft.

slipped with smooth orange slip.......

Another soda-fired bowl.....

Another soda-fired bowl....., originally uploaded by claycraft.

Another soft faceted bowl slipped with smooth orange slip and soda
fired......

Hank's soda-fired soft faceted bowl.....

Hank's soda-fired soft faceted bowl....., originally uploaded by claycraft.

slipped with smooth orange slip: 40 OM4, 40 PK, 10 Zinc, & 5 Borax