Thursday, October 29, 2009

October 28-29

Wednesday it was that all important yet extremely unentertaining task of cleaning up after a wood firing YAY!! not so much.  It was ok and eventually it got done.  That morning I finished my first of a sculpture that I have been trying to make for the last 3 weeks.  I am excited about further opportunities with this as it is very far from typical things i have done in the past.  Check out the photo and see what you think. 
Today I got to the studio a bit late when i arrived we had a man showing us an overglaze demo.  That fact that they instead of a canvas they just use a fired slap of clay however blows my mind.  I need to go and visit the slab factory, its on my list of things to do.  This afternoon i made cups my mission, hopefully 50% of these will survive trimming and i am going to try and once fire them in the soda kiln on Saturday.  Check em out, tomorrow i think more of the same and load the soda is the plan.  Peace and love.
Kurt


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Cups


Cups
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86
My goal with these cups is to make them exude motion and life and randomly stamp them with these geometric shapes to "stop" this motion if only just briefly

Cup Factory


Cup Factory
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

Over glaze demo


Over glaze demo
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

Over glaze demo


Over glaze demo
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

Newest Vase form


Newest Vase form
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

Close up


Close up
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

Cleaning the wood kiln


Cleaning the wood kiln
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

Monday, October 26, 2009

October 26 Unload!

The moment that everyone waits for in a wood kiln or any kiln for that matter, Unload.  For some reason this kiln cools very fast and 30 hours after we stopped firing we started to unload.  The pots looked beautiful, a lot of awesome things we had happening.  I just love everyone differences and that is one of the reasons its so good to see after a group firing like this.  We got a lot of ash over these pots and its interesting because we did the opposite of what this kiln was designed to do.  Very exciting over all and can't wait to do another.  Check ya'll later
Kurt


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Plate stack with my cup

lots of wood fired goodness

Aaron teapot


Aaron teapot
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86
SEXY,

Puzzled


Puzzled
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86



Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

Hmmmm...........


Hmmmm
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

Ooops!


Ooops
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

Unloaded


Unloaded
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86



Originally uploaded by napoleondd86



Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

Unbricking


Unbricking
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

Anticipation


Anticipation
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

October 23-25 Long Weekend of Loading and Firing Wood Kiln

Started Thursday glazing pots going well into the afternoon on Friday and then started loading immediately afterwards.  We loaded and bricked up the door until 1am saturday morning, then we kindled for the rest of the evening drying out pots, because many were once fired and lots of big pots.  All together it was a 34 hour firing, which was good.  I was on the two midnight to 6 am shifts and man did i learn a lot.  It was great, i am excited to see the pots when they come out.  Oh and while we were firing the wood kiln, the studio was simultaneously firing this huge gas kiln.  Everyone was tired. 

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Reeked Havoc


Reeked Havoc
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86
Compare this pile from the original one posted several week ago

Relaxing after a long night


Its Like a Camp Fire


Its Like a Camp Fire
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

Cooking


Cooking
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

Tired


Tired
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

Simutaneously firing Gas kiln


Loaded!


Loaded!
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

Sunday, October 25, 2009

10-21 -2009 Yao Li and food poisoning

Me and Nick went with a couple of other people to this historic place called Yao Li.  It is home to this Kiln Museum and a ton of ancient history which is really great.  It showed everything from ancient workshops, to ancient ruins of at least 6 different kilns, it was good.  Also very close to this is Gaoling which is the place where they first found Kaolin and is considered the birthplace of modern Porcelain it was amazing to just be standing around all of that history.  We had this great lunch and i bought some of Yao Li's famous green tea which is awesome.  That night i started to get sick and ended up sleeping the next 2 days 30 of 48 hours, but all is well, and that place was BEAUTIFUL, by the way.  Later
Kurt


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Home of Kaolin


Home of Kaolin
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

On Gaoling Mountain


On Gaoling Mountain
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86
This mountain was so gorgeous, waterfalls and beauty everywhere

Founder of Kaolin


Founder of Kaolin
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

Kiln Museum


Kiln Museum
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

Kiln Museum


Kiln Museum
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

more Yao Li


Yao Li
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

Yao li village


Yao li
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

To Yao Li


To Yao Li
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

10-20-2009 Glaze store and Ceramic Expo

Today we went to the glaze store to see what they all had, there are many glaze stores, it was really awesome and crazy any color you want wild!  Oh and the test tile shapes were "interesting" too :) .Then this afternoon we went to this ceramic expo and fair and it was really awesome, they had individual people as well as many companies selling things, it was quite interesting and lots of awesome work.  It was good.  Holla Kurt
 


Windows 7: I wanted more reliable, now it's more reliable. Wow!

One of many great works



Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

The expo


The expo
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

more tiles



Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

more tiles



Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

test tiles? :)



Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

glaze store



Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Tooo Long! Yixing and its glory

First i am very sorry that it has been sooo very long, Whatever may have been the reasons or excuses, i apologize but i should be back to a regular schedule now.
 
enough of that.  YIXING!!!!! was absolutely fantastic, it was soooo good I will only attempt to describe it.  We left 10 days ago, which was wednesday despite what ended up being a 10 hour bus ride that was pretty cramped we all arrived in one piece, it was good, we got there, checked into bed and eventually went to bed. 
 
Thursday: We got going and we had to wait for this man to meet us who was going to show us around the town for morning/afternoon.  While waiting we went into a man's teapot shop/gallery, it really is both for these artists.  He had some absolutely gorgeous teapot, one stuck out and i asked to see it, he showed it to me and what i found, to me anyway, was one of the most completely complete pieces of art/pottery/ceramics/or object that i have ever seen.  Everything was looked at, it was a product of total design, it was absolutely beautiful but of course it had won an award and wanted a piece that was nowhere near a price that anyone i know could afford.  That one piece has already started to influence me.  That morning the man arrived and showed us one of his boss's personal warehouse's, which was huge, then we saw this ceramic expo, and then went to this ancient dragon kiln which was extremely large, guessing 200 feet long and more than 600 years old and still firing (they were loading it while we were there). RIDICULOUS!!   Afterwards we had lunch at maybe the nicest restaurant i have ever been to.  Then we went to this Yixing museum which was super great seen soo many wonderful teapots i don't even want to tell you. That afternoon we visited this gallery/shop area where a bunch of people all have shops making and selling teapots.  This was the start of the 10's and maybe 100's of thousands of teapots i seen over the course of the next few days.  It was a really good day.
 
Friday: We went another area where there were all of these teapot maker, and their apprentices, making teapot, workshops and galleries, seen a ton more fantastic teapots it was great.  We got to see some people making teapots which was really cool.  I believe what this place was called is the Number 1 factory but i could be mistaken.  The whole area was a total dedication to the tea and the teapot, you could be tea, teapots, tea trays, teapot making tools, anything.That afternoon we went to another market area, with all kinds of shops and what not, this is where my teapot buying frenzy started.  That night a bunch of people got Pizza Hut, I went and got some delicious chinese food, and afterwards we found this crazy coffee shop. 
 
Saturday:  We got to check out more teapots, it was still really cool, enjoyed every minute of it, and i am still to this day not sick of teapots.  What i did notice besides learning to speak to language and try and bargain, because that is what you do, besides learning so much about a good teapot, was that i had seen all of these teapots and i could walk into a room with 1000 teapots and find a dozen or less that i liked, all of this usually within 5 minutes or less.  That i found was really interesting to see.
 
Sunday: Home, we went to pick up some Yixing clay, to be able to make some teapots, and headed home.  It was a great trip, trying to decipher what i learned will take time but i am excited about the possibilities. 
 
Things i learned: Watching James Bond movies for the 18 or so hours we were on the bus "MAY" be excessive.  Patient is a virtue that i soon hope to be able to add to my work.  And Tea will be coming with me to Richmond MN, Grand Forks ND, and wherever else i may end up in the future.


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Tea for me and tom


Tea for me and tom
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86
Between me and tom's desks i found this tea table

A few of the many i bought

Maybe half of what i now have

One of many


One of many
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86
This is one of the pieces from the last stop we made on the trip which home to this very famous teapot maker/ artist

Why i love china


Why i love china
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

Coffee house view


Coffee house view
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86
all of that with this view = SICK

Coffee house


Coffee house
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86
Unlimited coffee, snacks, everything

Like teapot armies


Like teapot armies
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

Hair washed


Hair washed
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86
In china, for 4 1/2 American Dollar you can get your hair washed which includes a from the arms up massage, ITS AMAZING

Beautiful


Beautiful
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

All less than 3in tall


All less than 3in tall
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86

The Museum


The Museum
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86