It is winter now and until the snow melts, a slow time at the studio. My fall firing went very smoothly with nice pots throughout the kiln. If anything the kiln is getting too hot. Cone twelve puddled, causing the shinos to become much too shiny for my taste. I'll try to toughen up the glazes for the spring firing. Some lovely pots came out of the fire box. I was particularly pleased with some basket forms that I've been working on, and the 'hiki-dashi' (pulled from the kiln at peak temp and rapidly cooled) pots were again excellent. (Thanks Pete) The new work can be seen on the 'Teaware' and 'Vase' pages, and also some choice pieces are on the 'For Purchase' page.

The firing was also quite enjoyable. I had great help from an old student/friend Greg Kaplan, who studied with me in Nishinomiya many years ago. He has settled into a real job with Adobe in Seattle, He was on a one month sabbatical from his company and wanted to come fire. I told him he was nuts and that if he were smart he would head for Taihiti. But he was determined and proved to be a great help. Owen, my recent apprentice has also moved on to a real job. Luckily for me it is teaching English in Osaka. He is still able to spend a couple days a week helping me. And his company was kind enough to give him some time off for the firing. He was very happy to have someone under him (Greg) to boss around. Chika was out for a couple days, having dumped Richie at the Grandparents.
Following the firing, we had an Open House at the kiln. It was a beautiful late fall weekend. It was well attended with customers coming from as far away as Tokyo.

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My next firing will be in the end of March. A fellow student from my Albion days, David Smith will be coming for a month to fire and have an exhibition at Rerun. He is on sabbatical from his teaching job at Edgewood College in Wisconsin.