Click on photos for more details:
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| HOME DESIGN: Studio and home were built by myself from old wood in 1983. |
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| WHEEL DESIGN: Hand and kick wheels were made from zelkova wood (keiyaki). |
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| KILN DESIGN: Fired clay design models of 10' x 22' and 8' x 15' anagama kilns built in '82 & '95. |
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| FIRING PROCESS: A week to load, a week to fire, another week to cool & unload... |
1983
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| First firing of large kiln: w/ Torbjorn Kvasbo (potter, Norway), left, & Sato Katsuhiko (painter, Nara), right... |
 
Lil'
Abner'
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| & Morioka Shige (potter, Wakayama) on truck... plus 'Lil' Abner', the wood splitter. |
FIRING PROCESS:STUDIO/KILNS
Clay comes the Shigaraki mountains with natural feldspar granules. It is dried, pounded by hand, and sifted to remove the larger stones. Finally, it is wet mixed, then sun dried to the right consistency, before being aged for a year.
Red pine wood comes from the same mountains in 4 meter logs which are cut by chainsaw to length. Smaller diameter logs can be split with a wood splitter that works with a geared motor and a camshaft; large logs are split by axe. Split wood is stacked and dried for 6 months before a firing.
It takes 3-4 months to split the 10 cords (1000 bundles) of wood for the large kiln, or 2 months to split the 5 cords (500 bundles) for the smaller kiln.
From kiln loading to unloading and sorting the work after the firing, it basically requires another full month of work.
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| 6 days/ 7 nights
During the actual firing, my wife Akiko and I take 6 hour shifts. |