Japan Trip

We are back from our amazing trip to Japan. It was an incredible trip, full of tasty food, friendly people, beautifully wrapped everythings, on-time public transportation, and something new and different around every corner.

I published a bit more images on my Facebook page - 15 or so. We took a ton of pictures - over 500! Of course, digital cameras are a great way to keep kids occupied on long train rides so not every image is Pulitzer worthy. I think the images there give a good taste of what we experienced.

Kusakabe-san was the main reason for the visit and he was very generous opening up his studio to our family. He will be coming back to the Boston area in July to fire GreenFire again and we look forward to seeing him again!

There was so much good take-away: I loved how ceramics could be found in department stores, seeing posters for ceramics postered all over the cities, trying new foods, discovering how mountainous the country is, marveling at the precision of the trains and subways, being blown-away by the generousity of the Japanese people. Of course, it was incredible to be exposed to the clay history of the work I so admire. Hopefully, it won't be my last trip to this wonderful country.

Tokkuri, Vases

Spent more time on the computer - uploading images of Tokkuris and Vases. Here's a little sample...
Both were woodfired - the tokkuri was also in a salt chamber...

New Images (Teapots, Yunomis)

After all the firings this month, I was finally able to bring everything together and spend some time with the camera, tripod, and lights. I'm no Ansel Adams, but atleast I kept some things in focus.
Two teapots from the firing down in New Jersey.

Some yunomis from the same firing. I have put a lot more images on the website.

Back From NCECA

Crazy week - unloading all the stuff from NCECA, trying to document 3 firings, getting ready for our open studio May 1, final prep for our trip to Japan. All very exciting, all so much to do in a short period of time. Here's a couple of images to illustrate the trip:

Incredible show of Bill Daley's pots at the Philadelphia Center for Architecture. A collaboration with his son Thomas, architect. Beautiful, beautiful pots that look like they belong in an HH Richardson building. Gorgeous surfaces and contours you could get lost in for weeks!

Some images from the wood firing down at Appel Farm. Top image is from the wood chamber, the bottom image is from the salt chamber. Bruce Dehnert, who ran the workshop, is so sweet and hard working and generous - I would love to fire with him again!

It was an incredible week at NCECA, with wonderful presentations by so many artists - but what was the best was being able to meet the people behind the pots I so admire and discovering new great work! Ron Meyers, Allegheny Meadows, Julia Galloway - all so intelligent, intense, open to talking and listening and challenging. I really admire the amount of energy they all put into their work and the ceramics community. I hope to get there someday...